Boat-shaped Chinese gold ingot (yuanbao). Boat-shaped gold ingots have been popular in China since the Qing Dynasty and are still bought as festive gifts for Chinese New Year.
Goldtresor offers a wide range of physical precious metals investment options. Through our fully online platform you can maintain a precious metals account with 100% physical backing, secure and insured storage.
The Goldtresor system is accessible from anywhere, open 24 hours a day, where you can buy and sell physical gold and other precious metals at very competitive prices, manage your gold savings, and benefit from value-insured storage.
What precious metals can you trade on Goldtresor?
Gold, silver, platinum and palladium — all completely VAT-free!
Gold is VAT-exempt by law. For silver, platinum and palladium, VAT can be a headache for investors — but a precious metals account solves this, because the physical metal backing your account is stored in bonded warehouses.
What services does Goldtresor offer?
The heart of the Goldtresor system is the gold account, as well as silver, platinum and palladium accounts. The centrepiece of Goldtresor's gold investment service is a gold account backed by physical gold, with everything else built around it. Through the gold account, you can launch a gold savings programme — or you can convert your gold account balance into investment gold bars, wafers or coins, just like a traditional gold purchase. You can also opt to place the purchased bars and coins into custodial storage within the Goldtresor system, so you don't need to rent a safe for secure storage.
What does "gold account" actually mean?
The best analogy is a cash account with physical gold held as backing. The "account" aspect provides ease of use; the "gold backing" aspect provides security. Your gold is expressed as a gramme balance, shown to four decimal places. The gramme balance can be easily and instantly converted into any currency or into physical investment gold bars and coins.
The monetary properties of gold are fully realised through a gold account. With a gold account, gold truly becomes money.
So is a gold account a modern version of the old gold-based monetary system?
You could say that, yes. Before World War I, the gold standard was in force. Every unit of currency issued had to be backed by gold. There was no unlimited money printing.
Goldtresor restores this system. Every amount deposited into Goldtresor and converted to a gold account balance must be 100% gold-backed and must move in perfect lockstep with the physical gold price.
Why do you say the gold account moves with the physical gold price? Is there a virtual gold price too?
Yes. The exchange-traded gold price, centred primarily on the Chicago exchange, is a virtual gold price. Only about 1 in every 200 ounces of exchange-traded gold is backed by physical gold held in the exchange's vault. If everyone tried to claim their physical bars at once based on their exchange contracts, it would quickly become clear that there isn't enough physical gold backing. Everyone knows this, of course, but in "peacetime" the virtual and physical gold prices move in lockstep, because very few people actually call for delivery of physical gold bars. However, if things went badly wrong, the physical gold price would immediately decouple from the exchange price — everyone would rush to sell their exchange contracts and buy physical bars instead. This actually happened in our own experience in August 2011, when the US credit rating was downgraded amid the debt ceiling debate. For a while, physical gold was only available at a premium over the exchange price, until the market calmed down. Either way, it was a warning sign: big changes tend to happen from one moment to the next. By the time the news breaks, it's too late to act — you need to prepare in advance.
How exactly does "gold backing" work? How does the money I deposit at Goldtresor become gold-backed?
In simplified terms: you deposit money and press the button to buy a gold account balance. On that same day, potentially hundreds of other clients do the same. We convert the funds flowing into Goldtresor into euros, then buy 1,000-gramme gold bars and place them in value-insured vaults. If the flow reverses, the process runs in reverse: we sell the gold bars, receive the euro equivalent and transfer it back to clients in their chosen currency. Essentially, we pool the funds and invest them wholesale in gold bars at institutional prices. The key point is that if you add up all client gold account balances and compare them with the fine gold in the vaulted bars, the latter must be greater than or equal to the former. This is how we ensure that every gold account claim is backed by physical gold.
So it's like thousands of small investors pooling together to buy at wholesale prices? And what does Goldtresor keep?
Yes, it's a very efficient, almost fully automated system. In wholesale gold bar trading, the spread above and below the world market price is only a few basis points, so it works out: clients buy gold account balances at 1% above the mid-market price and sell at 1% below, and Goldtresor still keeps a few basis points.
Secure Precious Metals Storage in International Trade
How can you know how much gold is held in vault as backing for the accounts? How are precious metals stored?
Precious metals are stored in high-security vaults. There are only a handful of major players in this market. We use Loomis, a Nasdaq-listed company with an excellent reputation. They handle not only precious metals storage but also specialised value logistics and international cash management. Almost every major market participant has a contract with their vaults — refineries, banks and wholesalers can transact without the goods ever leaving the vault. Loomis operates multiple vault facilities in the US, Europe and the Far East. We currently use their Frankfurt, Vienna and Zurich services.
We receive a daily inventory report from Loomis showing the number of items stored per product type. We compare this against our own inventory records. We in turn are audited by our auditor, who has the right to reconcile Loomis's statements with Goldtresor's records at any time.
How does precious metals insurance work?
The market leader in precious metals insurance is Marsh. Vault facilities like those operated by Loomis or Brinks are subject to very specific requirements — procedural standards, employee vetting, security technology, mechanical protection and guarding. Insurance specialists verify that these conditions are in place. The policy is underwritten by one or more insurers, often including a reinsurer such as Lloyd's. An "evidence of insurance" document is allocated from the master contract held by Loomis, issued in the name of the insured party. Since Goldtresor is operated by Conclude Zrt., our current USD 10 million evidence of insurance letter is issued in Conclude's name. As the stored value grows, the insurance limit can be increased accordingly.
