Page 12 - Bullion World Volume 02 Issue 10 October 2022_Neat

Bullion World | Volume 2 | Issue 10 | October 2022

Gold247 – A strategic

vision for transforming

the gold market

When I talk about how the World From our own research, we know
Gold Council first started working on that almost 50% of people don’t trust
the Gold247 programme, I always go gold , which has led to warnings by
back to my former career at Credit regulators not to buy the product.
Suisse. During my last five years I asked myself, where could I go to
there, I ran the firm’s global macro check the integrity of the product?
division, international rates, FX, Accessibility: Our research also
commodities and electronic trading. demonstrated that 40% of people
Significantly, and perhaps even don’t understand gold or how to
ironically, I was also the person who safely access or invest in the asset,
shut down commodities trading at again leading to warnings from the
the bank –precious metals included. regulators. I was left asking, where
do I go or how do I safely access this
Why? Because I saw the market product 24/7?
as simply too difficult, risky and
expensive to be involved with. Highly fragmented global gold market: Mr David Tait
CEO, World Gold Council
Ultimately, closing the operation I often liken the gold market today
saved money and improved my to medieval England, with feudal
return on capital. Fast forward a leaders ruling over their own patch, chain working for and on behalf
few years, and now it’s my purpose, working together in a haphazard of the industry. I asked – who has
and that of the World Gold Council, and inefficient manner. Why were responsibility for our industry’s
to figure out why the gold market the markets not joined up and gold future?
is difficult, risky and expensive and not fully fungible? Imagine if they
change both the perception and the were – it would be so much more In that context, the World Gold
reality. attractive to global investors and Council has set out to solve for gold
asset managers. integrity, accessibility and fungibility
When I first joined the World Gold –and that is what we call Gold247.
Council, I identified four fundamental Lack of global governance and We’ve been working on this initiative
challenges facing the gold market. regulatory oversight: Unlike for several years now, mostly behind
many other markets, there is closed doors. However, I’m proud to
Lack of trust: This is evident at both no overarching entity or body say that the first critical step of this
the retail and institutional levels. representing the entire supply programme is well underway with the
Gold Bar Integrity Programme.

The LBMA and World Gold Council
1 48% Global gold considerers who have never bought and cited a lack of trust as a barrier to partnered to develop and implement
purchase; source: Retail gold insights 2019, World Gold Council.
2 40% Global gold considerers who have never bought and cited ease of purchase as a key an international system of gold
requirement when buying gold. source: Retail gold insights 2019, World Gold Council bar integrity. Using Blockchain to

create an exhaustive, immutable

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