The Bank Of England Lost 755 Tonnes Of Gold In 2013

According to the official 2014 report, the BoE had 755 tonnes less gold in their vaults in February 2014 relative to February 2013.
However, when we look at UK’s net gold trade over this period (March 2013 – February 2014), we can see 1593 tonnes were exported.
GLD’s stock lost 451 tonnes over this period.
This leaves a gap of 392 tonnes (1593 minus 1201), which had to be supplied by additional LBMA or private vaults in London.

Submitted by Koos Jansen, In Gold We Trust:
The Bank Of England (BoE) just came out with their annual report 2014.   In the report it’s stated the BoE is the custodian of 5485 metric tonnes of gold (£140 billion pounds measured February 28, 2014).   From the BoE annual report 2014:

The Bank provides custodial services for a range of customers. As at 28 February 2014, total assets held by the Bank as custodian were £594bn, of which £140bn were holdings of gold.

In the BoE’s annual report 2013 it was stated they held 6240 tonnes of gold (£210 billion pounds measured February 28, 2013). From the BoE annual report 2013:

As part of this strategy the Bank also provides custodial services for a range of customers. As of 28 February 2013, total assets held by the Bank as custodian were £699 billion, of which £210 billion were holdings of gold.

(To calculate the tonnage I used a gold price of £1046.719 for February 2013 and £793.931 for February 2014)


According to the BoE they had 755 tonnes less gold in their vaults in February 2014 relative to February 2013 (in contrast to reports the BoE lost 1300 tonnes in 2013).   The BoE is a custodian for central banks and the LBMA, the removed gold from the vaults was most likely from LBMA customers. GLD’s gold inventory is vaulted in London, but I’m not positive how much, if any, of their gold is stored at the BoE. GLD’s stock lost 451 tonnes over this period.   If everything GLD lost came from their own HSBC vault, and nothing from their sub-custodian the BoE, the gold removed from both GLD and the BoE in total is 1206 tonnes.

However, when we look at UK’s net gold trade over this period (March 2013 – February 2014), we can see 1593 tonnes were exported.



This leaves a gap of 392 tonnes (1593 minus 1201), which had to be supplied by additional LBMA or private vaults in London.