Let’s look at two actual examples – one of a bank, one of a wealth-storage facility.
USA:
A client asks his bank to wire transfer US$178,000 in funds to an
overseas facility to purchase precious metals for storage. The bank then
created a series of roadblocks:
- Required a written request with an original, signed copy to be hand-delivered.
- Once that was done, a voice authorization of the letter by phone was required.
- Once that was done, it required the client to receive a PIN number, which would take several days to create and would need to be sent by courier.
- After the client jumped through all those hoops, the bank changed its requirements completely, requiring that a cashier’s cheque be sent instead, which required ten days clearance.
Lost time – four weeks from date of first request.
Austria:
A client tries to transfer his allocated 138 gold Philharmonics from
his bank to a facility in another jurisdiction. The bank repeatedly
produced roadblocks, as follows:
- Refused to ship the products themselves and refused to arrange shipment.
- Refused to release the goods to FedEx when they arrived, even though proof of insurance was provided. The bank then insisted on the hiring of a Brinks truck.
- They then refused to release the coins at all, except to another bank.
- They then claimed that they were “not ready” to release the coins. The client was invited to “try again” if he wished. (Eight attempts were required.)
- Finally, they agreed to release the coins, but only if a 1% withdrawal fee were applied (not part of the original agreement – essentially a ransom).
There are many, many more examples already, but these should suffice to illustrate the growing trend: If
you wish to get your money or metals out of an endangered jurisdiction,
such as an EU country or North America, the window of opportunity is
closing. Expect them to make it difficult, costly, and even impossible for you to get out.
But
why should this be? What are these institutions up to? Don’t they
realise that they’re sending a message to clients that they’re not
helpful partners?
Well,
yes they do, but they’re also aware of another factor that’s more
important to them. As the economic crisis gets ever closer, they
understand that the day will soon come when a banking emergency is
declared and the banks will shut their doors for an as-yet-unknown
period of time (presumably until a solution is found). What will the new
rules be? No one knows. Will the banks and storage facilities be
obligated to deliver in full if the doors open once again? No one knows.
Therefore,
in the final stretch of this race to the bottom, they want to be
holding as much of your money and metals as they can.
The
above examples are just the thin end of the wedge and we can expect the
future to reveal greater restrictions. Whilst, in an economic crisis,
there are no guarantees, what we can do is opt for the situation that’s least likely to cost us our wealth. Again,
