BBC Newsday Live Interview with Gregor Gregersen
Read the transcript of the BBC Newsday segment below, including Archana Shukla’s live interview with our founder, Gregor Gregersen, from inside The Safe House vault at The Reserve:
BBC Newsday anchor: “[Monetary] Authority of Singapore has officially opened its high-security national currency vault for the first time to foreign central banks that are looking to securely store their sovereign gold reserves. It comes as central banks worldwide aggressively stockpile precious metals amid geopolitical friction, with Singapore now positioning itself as a leading global safe haven. Earlier, I spoke to our business presenter, Archana Shukla, who was inside the vault, and asked her what it was like.”
Archana Shukla: “It’s very overwhelming. You know, it’s a small space because gold doesn’t require a large space to be stored, considering it’s a dense metal. And there are hundreds of small storage boxes lined up, one on top of the other and next to each other, which store about a 12.5-kilogram gold bar in each of them.
“So that’s about 400 ounces of the metal being stored in one small storage box. And there are hundreds of these, and these are owned by private wealth individuals, ultra-rich individuals around the world, as well as some investors who store their private physical gold here in this vault. I am inside a vault which is one of the largest gold repositories around the world that you can see housed here in Singapore.”
BBC Newsday anchor: “Why is Singapore doing this now?”
Archana Shukla: “Well, you know, Singapore now wants to become a hub for gold trading. The timing is coincident. Central banks around the world have been buying gold at record levels.
“They are worried about wars, geopolitics, debt, you know, currencies. And they want to move the physical gold to a place where they can access it easily and as quickly as possible in times of crisis. Also, Asia is where the largest consumers of gold are.
“About half of the world’s gold is consumed by Asian economies led by China and India. So moving physical gold to a place like Singapore, which is also kind of neutral in terms of its political stance, could work better. And that’s what the aim for the central bank here is, which is opening up its national vault for central banks from around the world to move their sovereign gold here.
“I also spoke with Gregor Gregersen, who is the founder of Silver Bullion, the company that owns this gold vault where I’m standing right now. And this is what he had to say about what his private wealth investors and even central banks around the world are thinking at this point in time.”
Gregor Gregersen: “Our clients are worried about long-term wealth preservation and specifically against systemic risk, meaning what if a war happens? What if the financial system has a downturn? What if we have hyperinflation in our reserve currency? These are the kinds of things our clients are worried about. And they have a 20-, 30-, 40-year time period. So it’s not so much of an investment as it’s a fallback security in times of crisis.”
Archana Shukla: “We also have a 12-and-a-half-kilogram gold bar here. How has the price of this gold changed over the last few months?”
Gregor Gregersen: “Yes, this one is about 400 ounces, 12.5 kilos, and it’s worth about 1.6 million US dollars right now. Now, the thing about gold is it tends to go up in bull markets, but you have hiccups. And we just went through a big hiccup. I mean, gold has fallen 30% from its high. And traditionally, that kind of indicates that it’s about a good price now and probably going to go up.”
Archana Shukla: “Why should it go up more?”
Gregor Gregersen: “Well, what you mentioned earlier, we have deficits which are not really payable. Politicians in many Western countries don’t seem to care about what’s going to happen. And so more and more money is being printed, whereas gold cannot really be printed. And if you take the US debt right now, 40 trillion dollars, you divide it by some unofficial reserves, one ounce of gold should be 150,000 US dollars.”
Archana Shukla: “And Singapore is now opening up its national vault. Very quickly, why Singapore?”
Gregor Gregersen: “I would say there’s three good things about Singapore. When our clients are coming in, it is a wealthy country. It is a country which is dependent on the international community to have trust. It is neutral and is well defended.”
Archana Shukla: “Well, while gold prices keep going up and down, it’s slightly down right now in the last few weeks. But countries and investors are now wanting to keep their gold close to where they are and also in a place where they trust. And that is what Singapore is banking on right now.”
BBC Newsday anchor: “Archana Shukla there.”