Many countries that hold gold in London or NY will likely be asking for it back very shortly! All the best.

Hi Jim,

I just wanted to inform you that last week two opposition parties in the Dutch parliament formally issued a new list of questions to the Minister of Finance in order to get more information on the Dutch gold reserves. In the fall of 2011 the socialist SP was the first party to send questions to the then Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, mainly focusing on where Dutch gold reserves were held, how much gold had been sold in the past and what the importance of these gold reserves were for the Dutch Central bank. The answers provided important, new insights like the spreading of Dutch gold reserves among custodians in New York, London and Ottawa and the amount of gold (1100 ton) that had been sold since 1991. At least as important was the information that no more gold was being sold and that gold leasing had stopped by 2008. In January 2012 Dutch television dedicated a special programme on the issue and interviewed the President of the Dutch Central Bank Klaas Knot, who told that 90% of the remaining 612 tonnes of Dutch gold reserves were held abroad.

Last week a second round of questions were issued by two opposition parties, the SP and the Christian Democrats (CDA). Not surprisingly, these new questions came in the wake of the report by the German Court of Auditors in October, in which it told German legislators that German gold reserves in custody abroad had never been verified physically and in which it ordered the Bundesbank to secure access to the storage sites. The following national debate on the lack of audits and the need for repatriation of German gold exploded into the foreign press and in spite of assurances by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble that there was no reason to worry, it was agreed that physical inspections would take place and that 150 tonnes of gold would be repatriated over three years. In reaction to the German debate, the Dutch legislators now want to know what the reaction of the Dutch Finance Minister is on the German plans and to explain how the Dutch gold in foreign custody has been and will be audited. The Minister is further asked whether he is prepared for the repatriation of Dutch gold and to provide more information on what has been agreed in the latest Central Bank Gold Agreements for the period 2009-2014. I guess, the fresh new Finance Minister of the Netherlands would have preferred to spend his time on other topics that this one and we may expect new heated debates, once the answers from the Minister come in.

CIGA Michiel