Barclays Offers Storage for Gold Bars

Barclays, a well-known bank in the United Kingdom, has given the word that it will be opening a private vault where gold bars can be stored within the city of London. While the specific location of the warehouse is not known, Barclays is a big player in the gold bullion market, so it comes as no surprise that a clandestine warehouse for storing it would be an additional service they offer. Due to upheaval in recent global economies, more and more investors and institutions have decided to buy gold bars. Barclays told the media that the service was asked for by the clients it serves. According to a recent article on Prison Planet, the vault will feature other precious metals, as well, including silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium. Although it's location must remain a secret for obvious reasons, the facility is to be one of the largest in all of Europe, and was built by Brink's Limited UK somewhere inside the M25 loop.

Global Gold Bars

Demand for gold bars has been incredibly strong at the global level for the past few years so building more vaults to store the precious metal is becoming necessary. Barclays told the press that those who buy gold bars and wish to store them in the bank's new warehouse include private investors and institutional investors, as well as both commercial and central banks. For each of these clients, the strength of using another facility to store their gold bullion or other valuables is so it is not all tied up in one specific location, which is known to be safer. London is, in fact, home to a number of other hidden vaults containing precious metals. Among those financial institutions with vaults known to be located in the UK's capital city are HSBC Holdings PLC, Bank of England and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Due to such a strong market for precious metals, more vaults may be on the way and Deutsche Bank AG is expected to be among them, putting in its own vault in 2013. For investors, this is a good sign because it means that they are not alone in believing that precious metals such as gold and silver are smart to be holding during times of economic uncertainty. Barclay's product manager for metals, Jonathan Spall, told the press, "Since QE3, the number of enquires we’re getting about buying gold have gone up."

World's Central Banks

Clearly, the moves made by the world's central banks are having a massive impact on the value of precious metals. Those who hold them have been told repeatedly by analysts in the media that their price is likely to rise and that if inflation sets in, holding these physical assets can be a way for them to safeguard their own wealth as times get more difficult to properly evaluate. While every investor must do their own research and think critically for themselves about how they decide to invest their own resources, precious metals continue to be a strong choice. More vaults getting built in the city of London, one of the global financial capitals of the world, are a good indicator that the value of precious metals won't be dropping any time soon.