GoldCore Secure Storage Ireland

The second most important decision an Irish buyer faces is how to store their gold. The first is the actual decision to purchase gold. Ideally, Irish gold bullion buyers or investors should diversify across storage locations to minimise event risks such as theft, government confiscation, terrorism, war and natural disasters that might affect one location.

This may mean keeping a small quantity of gold at home or in a readily accessible location, while storing the majority of your gold bullion holding in a secure international precious metals storage facility or vault, preferably in a financially stable and politically stable jurisdiction. GoldCore has partnered with Loomis and Brink’s, world leaders in precious and valuable storage solutions, to provide fully insured storage services to our Irish clients across a number of international jurisdictions in Switzerland, Singapore, the UK, Ireland and Hong Kong.

GoldCore Secure Storage annual storage fees start at 1% per annum and storage fees of less than 1% are available for larger values of gold and silver bullion stored:

Storage charges are calculated and accrued daily based on a daily valuation of the client’s bullion holdings, and then billed three months in arrears at the start of February, May, August and November.

A daily billing calculation means that the storage fee is accurately applied to the changing value of the precious metals, and reflects the changing gold price over the billing period. This calculation approach prevents large movements in the gold price affecting the bi-annual storage fee, which could occur if the fee was calculated based on just one day’s price.

When an Irish client buys bullion coins and bars from GoldCore, the initial purchase price does not include a storage fee. Therefore the client defers payment on storage until the first invoice date, which could be up to six months later. For example, if a client buys bullion in the first week of May, they only get billed for their first storage fee nearly six months later at the end of October, and so (the client) avoids an upfront storage fee at the time of purchase.

Direct ownership of gold means owning actual individual gold bullion coins and/or bars either in your possession or in allocated, segregated and fully insured accounts that you can access easily and quickly take delivery of your gold bullion from.

There is no counterparty risk with direct ownership since the gold bullion is the legal property of you the investor, and should the provider go out of business this does not impact your ownership of, or your access to the gold bullion.

By having direct ownership of physical coins and bars you can sell your bullion back to any number of international bullion dealers. This reduces your dependence on one single provider and also means that you are not dependent on an online digital bullion platform where the gold has to be sold back within that platform.

Client precious metal (gold, silver, platinum and palladium) stored by GoldCore at storage facilities in Zurich, Hong Kong, Singapore and London, is audited via a tri-party auditing procedure. On a daily basis, GoldCore Operations will reconcile client precious metal storage records against the vaulting facility records of the storage provider. If discrepancies are found in the records, these are fully investigated and quickly resolved.

On an annual basis, GoldCore directs independent auditor Inspectorate International Limited to audit GoldCore client precious metal inventory stored at storage facilities. This involves a physical inventory of all metal records and an audit of the weights of a sample of the precious metals holdings held in accounts. Discrepancies, if found, are brought to the attention of GoldCore and the storage provider and investigated and quickly corrected.

Clients with GoldCore Secure Storage accounts enjoy full transparency and accessibility over their holdings. Customers using Loomis’s storage vaults in Zurich, Hong Kong or London, and Brink’s facilities in Singapore, can log on to the respective storage operators’ websites and view their holdings in an inventory reporting application. With a phone call or signed communication, clients can visit and inspect their holdings or instruct GoldCore to move their bullion to another jurisdiction or deliver to a location of their choice.

GoldCore has retained some of the most professional and well-known precious metals storage companies in the industry to act as GoldCores sub-custodians in offering external precious metals vaulting solutions to our Irish clients in a number of international locations in Europe and Asia.

GoldCore has partnered with Brink’s to offer GoldCore’s Irish clients secure precious metals storage in its state-of-the-art secure vault in Singapore.

Brink’s is one of the largest and best-known security companies in the world, providing a range of security services including armoured transport and logistics, and precious metals vaulting facilities. Founded in 1859 in the U.S. and still headquartered in the U.S., Brink’s employs over 70,000 people in over 100 countries.

In the U.S., Brink’s is synonymous with the security industry. It is is involved in precious metals vaulting and transport, other secure transportation, cash handling for banks, and a variety of corporate security operations.

In the provision of precious metals services, Brink’s provides services throughout the gold and silver supply chains, moving precious metals on behalf of miners, central banks, and other participants in the global gold market, and weighing, assaying and storing gold and silver on behalf of its clients.

Brink’s operates high security precious metals vaults in a number of cities around the world. In Asia, Brink’s maintain precious metals vaults in Singapore and Hong Kong, while in Australia Brink’s operates a precious metals vault in Melbourne.

In the U.S., the company maintains metals vaults in New York City, and Salt Lake City, Utah. In New York, Brink’s is the only precious metals storage provider to have been appointed as a Nymex/Comex authorised depository for gold, the other Comex authorised gold depositories being the New York vault facilities of investment banks JP Morgan, HSBC and Scotia Mocatta.

Salt Lake City is home to the giant Johnson Matthey gold and silver refinery, where most newly-minted U.S. gold is processed, hence the Brink’s facility is located nearby.

In Canada, Brink’s also operates two precious metals vaults in Ontario, one of which is in Toronto, again very close to Johnson Matthey’s Canadian gold and silver refinery is in Brampton, just outside Toronto.

In London, Brink’s is a key member of the LBMA, where it operates a number of precious metals vaults near the City, making it the third largest precious metals vaulting provider in the London market behind HSBC and JP Morgan.

As with the other large storage providers, Brink’s precious metals vaults around the world are covered by specialist insurance, so GoldCore’s Irish clients can rest assured that their precious metals holdings stored with Brink’s in Singapore are securely protected and well covered.

GoldCore has partnered with Loomis International to offer GoldCore’s Irish clients a choice of secure precious metals storage in Loomis’s vaults in Zurich, Hong Kong and London.

Loomis International was originally a member company of the Via Mat Group, founded in 1945. Loomis acquired Via Mat Group in April 2014. Loomis has 23,000 employees in 20 countries. It is quoted on the Swedish stock exchange via its parent company Securitas AB. It has over 400 offices worldwide.

Loomis International itself one of the world’s leading global logistics and storage companies for valuables such as precious metals, banknotes and fine art. Loomis International offers its clients custom-bonded or inland (domestic) storage at high security storage and vaulting facilities in a number of international locations. Regular audits are undertaken and facilitated by Loomis, and the company operates with comprehensive specialist insurance cover.

GoldCore offers its Irish clients long-term precious metals vault storage at three Loomis vault locations near Zurich in Switzerland, in London, and in Hong Kong. For example, near Zurich, Loomis has a number of facilities in the Kloten area near Zurich international airport, including a recently added high security 600m sq. precious metals warehouse.

Loomis is a member of the Association of European Safety Carriers (ESTA), a member of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) and the LBMA in London. In New York, Loomis is NYMEX commodity exchange-authorised for the transportation of precious metals, and is a member of the International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI), and the Independent Armored Car Operators Association (IACOC).

GoldCore has partnered with the Perth Mint of Western Australia to offer GoldCore clients access to the only government backed precious metals certificate programme in the world.

GoldCore was appointed as an authorised dealer for the Perth Mint Certificate Programme (PMCP) in 2005. GoldCore is the only authorised dealers for this programme in the EU and one of a select few providers of this service internationally. The PMCP allows Irish investors, savers and pension funds to own investment grade gold, silver and platinum bullion stored in the vaults of the Perth Mint.

The Perth Mint is fully-owned by the State Government of Western Australia. The company operates Australia’s only gold refinery and also produces legal tender gold and silver coins behalf of the Australian Commonwealth Government, and a range of silver and gold bar products.

The Perth Mint is the trading name of Gold Corporation, which is the successor organisation of the Royal Mint’s Perth branch founded in 1899. The certificate programme is fully-guaranteed by the Government of Western Australia, which has received the highest AAA rating from international rating agencies, and is the only government-guaranteed certificate programme in the world.

The Perth Mint’s precious metals refinery is on the London Bullion Market Association’s good delivery list for both gold and silver good delivery bars, and on the US CME Comex exchange’s approved refinery list for gold bars.

GoldCore has partnered with independent auditor Inspectorate International to audit GoldCore clients’ precious metals inventory stored at GoldCore custodians’ precious metals vaults. On an annual basis, Inspectorate visits the vaults and conducts physical audits of precious metals holdings. These are then reconciled with the vault’s own records and with GoldCore’s records. Irish storage clients of GoldCore can therefore be reassured that this tri-party auditing procedure is of the highest international standards.

Inspectorate International is one of the leading auditors of vault and storage facilities in the world and auditors the precious metals held by many entities including banks, bullion dealers and investment funds in the world’s largest precious metals vaults. Inspectorate also supervisors the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) good delivery system and is an associate member of the LBMA. Inspectorate also monitors precious metals refineries to ensure that the precious metals that they produce meet the LBMA’s quality standards, or what is called “good delivery status”.

Since it was acquired in 2010, Inspectorate International has been of the Bureau Veritas Commodities Division, which is one of the world’s leading providers of commodities inspection and testing.