Why Is HSBC Clearing Out So Much Physical Gold?

Thats the directive that came down from HSBC USA in late November.

Whiskey & Gunpowder, Before Its News, Wednesday, January 13, 2010 12:14

It seems that everyone these days wants gold. Real, physical gold coins that they can hold in their hands, or bars that theyre assured are resting safely in a well-guarded vault. HSBCs New York vault, for example, buried deep below its 5th Avenue tower, where it has stored peoples gold since it inherited the facility from Republic Bank a decade ago.

But no more.

HSBC has served notice to its retail customers - many of whom are simply middle-men and custodial services which store gold with HSBC on behalf of hundreds of their own account holders - that all their gold must be out of its facility by July 2010. Otherwise, folks, prepare for an unwelcome knock at your door. HSBCs letter says that, in the absence of directions to the contrary, clients metal "will be returned to the address of record… at your expense."

Picture, if you will, what the Wall Street Journal reported: "fleets of armoured cars laden with gold, ferrying the precious metal out of New York."

Where to? Thats a good question. One destination is a pair of warehouses operated by FideliTrade, the parent company of Delaware Depository Service Co. Its vaults in Wilmington have been filling up quickly, leading Jonathan Potts, the managing director, to comment that, “I have never seen any relocation like this." Other depositories have seen a similar run.

The logic behind HSBCs decision, according to the Journal, is simple. The vaults are being cleared of smaller clients in order to make more room for institutional holdings, because "retail customers tend to be more expensive [to service] in part because of their diverse holdings. They usually buy American Eagle or Canadian Maple Leaf coins, and bars of various weights and sizes, all of which need to be categorized and stored separately. In contrast, institutions typically buy standardized bars of 100 or 400 ounces, making them easier to store. Institutions also tend to hold the metal for long periods."

HSBC itself didnt say why its doing this (in fact, its letter wasnt intended for public release). So, predictably, the Internet exploded with rumors that its action had more sinister motives.

Chief among them has been the tungsten story. That one, in case you havent already heard it, maintains that a foreign gold buyer - some say Indian, some say Chinese - found to its dismay that bars it recently purchased were merely gold-plated tungsten. (Tungsten would be the metal of choice for a counterfeiter because its the closest metal to gold in specific gravity, and can fool the most basic test for purity.) Some go as far as to claim that Fort Knox is full of fakes, deliberately placed there to make our official stash appear bigger than it is. A suspicion thats easily stoked since no outside auditor has inspected U.S. gold holdings in over 50 years.

Be that as it may, the latest rumor claims that the appearance of tungsten bars at this time is going to cause widespread chemical testing of gold bars, and HSBC doesnt want to be caught with anything bogus. Thus theyre preemptively moving their gold out, protecting themselves and at the same time laying off the need to do any testing onto someone else.

This is a great tale, but it ignores the fact that its largely coins and small bars that are being moved, and those are not cost effective to counterfeit in tungsten. In addition, that the story is presently confined to the Net means its fiction until proven otherwise. As Ed Steer - GATA activist and author of Casey Researchs Gold and Silver Daily - points out, "If it were true, Bloomberg would be all over it in a heartbeat."

Or someone would. And even if the mainstream media failed to do their job, theres still the absence of a smoking gun. Whos seen the tungsten bars? What are the names of officials who can confirm the fraud? Why arent the Indians whove been ripped off waving the phonies in front of a TV camera? These questions dont yet have satisfactory answers. Thus the rumor will have to remain just that.

Rumor #2: HSBC has less gold on deposit than it promises, and its doling out what it does have to its best friends. This one might make some sense if HSBC were getting out of the gold business entirely. But it isnt. And if it does have any physical shortages, it can cover them indefinitely with paper "equivalents."

Rumor #3: HSBC is going under. Those storing large amounts of gold know it, and theyre protecting their assets from future claims by creditors. HSBC is hiding the mass exodus of gold by claiming to have ordered it. No way to confirm this, of course, but the volume of gold thats leaving means an awful lot of people know whats happening. Word of the banks fragility would surely have leaked out by now. That it hasnt makes this one highly doubtful - not to mention that HSBC likely falls into the "too big to fail" category and would be propped up if it faced collapse.

Rumor #4: The most outlandish of all. Under this scenario, Washington suspects an attack in conjunction with the terrorist trials, and its ordered gold moved out of New York so it isnt contaminated in the event of a dirty bomb. (Those with the deepest, darkest level of cynicism claim that this would also provide the government with a handy excuse to default on foreign claims to physical metal - as in, sorry, its gone, but heres what youre owed in dollars.)

All of these make for spicy Web chatter, but after checking with our own sources, we believe that the truth is far more mundane, yet quite exciting in its own right. In essence, we think the WSJs analysis is pretty close, with a twist.

It all has to do with the COMEX. That exchange, which handles futures activity in gold, has to maintain a cache of metal with which to settle trades. As a courtesy, it will also arrange to store gold for buyers who dont want to take physical delivery. But it has no vaults of its own. It contracts with four banks to do the actual storage, though only two maintain significant amounts: of the 9.73 million ounces of COMEX gold, Scotia Mocatta has the most, nearly 5.1 million; HSBC USA is next, with over 4.1 million.

The amount of gold warehoused by the COMEX has exploded since the metals bull run began in 2001, as you can see from the following chart (where "registered stocks" are sitting there with someones name already on them, and "eligible stocks" are awaiting either registration or delivery):

The trend is obvious, and what it means is that HSBC needs an ever-increasing amount of space for its COMEX gold. Provided, of course, that the trend remains in place. Or accelerates.

HSBC has cast its vote. It clearly believes that its going to be getting more gold from the COMEX, maybe a lot more, and its making room by giving the boot to other depositors. Perhaps the bank knows something we dont know, or perhaps its just acting out of reasonable expectation.

Either way, its telling us that the demand for gold is going to continue rising. And coming from a major bullion bank, thats about as bullish a signal as anyone could want. If you dont own any physical gold, its time.

Regards,
Doug Hornig
Caseys Gold & Resource Report

January 13, 2010