Updates On Impact from Covid-19 Situation
| During this period of government-mandated closure, you can continue to contact us at (65) 6100 3040 or using Skype (our ID is [email protected]). Alternatively, send us an email at [email protected]. |
20 May 2020 Update
We will resume retail operations on 2nd June 2020 and will inform customers who have outstanding pre-orders if their orders are ready to be collected.
Please take note that entering the Certis Cisco Centre II building will require SafeEntry. We will only permit up to 7 customers to be in our office at any time and social distancing measures will apply.
Update on bullion premiums
It is likely that premiums for gold and silver will remain at higher than normal levels in the weeks to come. This is largely due to:
- Severe slowdown in the aviation industry reducing the number of incoming flights
- Refineries are either closed or operating at limited capacity due to precautions taken in view of the virus
21 April 2020 Update
The Singapore Government has announced that the Circuit Breaker period is extended until 1 June 2020. Therefore, local customers may only collect their orders from our office from 2 June 2020.
19 April 2020 Update
If you are residing in Singapore, you can now sell gold and silver without leaving your home at no extra charges!
Follow these steps to sell bullion to us during this Circuit Breaker period:
1) Login to your Silver Bullion account to place a sell order online (minimum SGD 5,000).
2) Email us a scanned copy of your NRIC/passport at [email protected] with your order number.
3) Our logistics partner will contact you to arrange collection(weekdays only from 10am to 4pm) at no extra charge.
4) Bullion will be tested on-site and collected by our logistics partner*.
5) Receive payment via bank transfer within the same day after bullion is collected.
*Our logistics partner will need to verify your identity and will ask you for your NRIC/passport during collection. They will also hand you a collection receipt confirming the collection and a purchase order document for your sell order.
Transfer-in Gold & Silver Into Our S.T.A.R. Storage During Circuit Breaker Period
If you are residing in Singapore, you can now transfer bullion into S.T.A.R. Storage without leaving your home! Enjoy 75% off transfer-in charges when you transfer bullion to be stored in S.T.A.R. Storage between now and 31 May 2020! Transfer-in charges include the full testing of your bullion using our DUX Testing process to ensure that they are genuine and qualifies you for our Genuinity Guarantee.
Follow these steps to transfer bullion into S.T.A.R. Storage:
a) Login to your Silver Bullion account* to place a transfer-in order.
b) Initiate payment to our bank account after submission of your transfer-in order. Payment using PayNow is also available.
c) Our logistics partner will contact you to arrange collection(weekdays only from 10am to 4pm). You will receive confirmation of your payment and collection of bullion by email. Take note that this service is available only for residential and commercial addresses only.
d) We will process your bullion into S.T.A.R. Storage within 3 business days. You will be informed by email once this is completed and you will be able to login to your account to view the photos of your bullion.
Once you have bullion stored with us, you can obtain loans with interests from as low as 1.75% p.a. on our Secured P2P Loan platform using your bullion as collateral.
*Please apply for a S.T.A.R. Storage account at our website before a submitting a transfer-in order.
15 April 2020 Update
Should you have a substantial and urgent local sell request (>50,000 SGD) it is possible to lock in the price with us and have the gold collected from your home or other location in Singapore via a specialized, fully insured, secure logistic provider. Such a collection would incur a 300 SGD charge, regardless of weight collected. The transport charge would be deducted from sellback proceeds.
Due to the Circuit Breaker measures, bullion dealers are not allowed to collect bullion from customers' homes or do a delivery themselves. Only third-party logistics providers can be engaged for such services. In view that the value of the bullion is much higher than normal goods, full insurance and security for the delivery are necessary. Silver Bullion works with trusted secure logistics providers who are able to collect the bullion from your home in order to faciliate your sell orders.
14 April 2020 Update
As announced yesterday Silver Bullion Pte Ltd received approval by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to operate. However, we have been asked by another governmental agency to discontinue local sales and sellbacks to support the Singapore Covid-19 Circuit Breaker efforts.
This request is part of the enormous efforts that the Singapore Government is now expending to minimize local traveling and interactions. We believe that our civic duty is to support these circuit breaker efforts. Therefore, we decided to suspend local pickups and sellbacks that require customers to travel to our offices. We will contact local sellback customers directly to settle existing sellbacks and ensure your sellback proceeds are received on time.
Local buy orders to lock in the price and reserve the bullion can still be made, but physical pickup will be delayed until May 5.
Should you have a substantial and urgent local sell request (>50,000 SGD) it is possible to lock in the price and have the gold collected from your home or other location in Singapore via a specialized, fully insured, secured logistic provider. Such a collection would incur a 300 SGD charge, regardless of weight collected. The transport charge would be deducted from sellback proceeds.
Silver Bullion will continue to operate on our extended customer service hours and we will continue to be there for you 18 hours per day via phone and email.
13 April 2020 Update
Silver Bullion's office are open from 13 April 2020 onwards under the essential service provider general exemption legislation.
The following, priorly suspended, services are available again:
- Placing of orders for non-storage purchases
- Local pickup of orders
- Local buyback of bullion from customers
- Local transfer-in of bullion into our storage
Our operating hours are:
- Mon to Fri: 10am to 6pm
- Sat: 9am to 3pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays
The following precautionary policies will be enforced:
As Silver Bullion takes the implications of Covid-19 seriously, we will be operating on a limited capacity and will enforce social distancing measures for customers at our office. Temperature check will be performed on building entrance by Certis Cisco and:
- Customers will be allowed entry only if they have an existing order to buy, sell or transfer-in bullion.
- Only a maximum of 7 customers will be allowed into our office. This is to ensure social distancing which is now required by law.
- NRIC or Passport is required for entry.
New Order Limits
The minimum to buy or sell bullion will be SGD 2,000 or the USD/EUR equivalent.
Payment of Orders
Customers collecting their orders at our office should pay using bank transfer where possible.
Suspended Services
The following services remain suspended:
- In person DUX testing at The Safe House.
- Visits to The Safe House & in person bullion audits
8 April 2020 Update
With the Singapore government's latest circuit breaker measures which require offices of non-essential businesses to close and their staff to work from home, Gregor Gregersen provides an update on the situation in Singapore and how it has impacted Silver Bullion as a company.
4 April 2020 Update
The Singapore Government announced on 3 April that most work places will be closed from 7 April to 4 May, except for essential services, in the country’s latest measure to stem the spread of Covid-19. This is to reduce the chance of transmission by the workforce whilst commuting for work. In view of this, Silver Bullion’s office is expected to be closed from 7 April to 4 May.
However, our staff will be working from home during this period and will continue to assist customers with several available services listed below.
For local customers with orders ready to be collected, please collect your orders at our office by Monday 6 April. Our office will be opened from 7am to 9pm on 6 April to facilitate collection of orders. We will also be sending emails to these customers shortly. Orders not collected by 6 April will only be available for collection after the government’s mandated workplace closure period.
Suspended Services During Closure
The following services will be suspended while our office is closed during this period of time:
- Placing of orders for non-storage purchases
- Local pickup of orders
- Local buyback of bullion from customers
- Taking delivery of bullion at Silver Bullion’s office or at The Safe House
- In-person transfer of bullion for S.T.A.R. Storage
- Visits to The Safe House & in-person bullion audits*
- Access to Safe Deposit Boxes at The Safe House
*We plan to implement remote customer bullion audits soon. Check our website or subscribe to our newsletter for further updates.
Available Services During Closure
The following services will continue to be available:
- Customer support via phone and email
- Submission of buy and sell orders for S.T.A.R. Storage
- Processing of sell orders for S.T.A.R. Storage
- Processing of loans for our Secured P2P Loan platform
- Transfer of funds from S.T.A.R. Storage accounts to customers’ nominated bank accounts
- Transferring of bullion into S.T.A.R. Storage from another vault
- Processing of new S.T.A.R. Storage account applications
- Remote opening of Safe Deposit Boxes
During this time when global refining capacity and logistics are massively affected, we seek your understanding for potential delays in fulfilling your orders. Pending confirmation from the authorities regarding the operational ability of The Safe House during this period, we will do our best to continue to process incoming bullion shipments and inform you by email when your orders are fulfilled. All pre-orders will be fulfilled as we have sufficient stocks already on the way.
You Can Continue to Reach Us By Phone or Email
The hours for our phone and email support remains unchanged
- Weekdays: 7am to 1am (Singapore time)
- Saturday: 9am to 1pm (Singapore time)
You can continue to contact us at (65) 6100 3040 or using Skype (our ID is [email protected]). Alternatively, send us an email at [email protected].
For our customers who have rented or plan to rent Safe Deposit Boxes with The Safe House, you can contact our staff directly by email([email protected]) or Skype(ID: [email protected]).
As new events relevant to Silver Bullion develops, you can check back on this page for the latest updates.
Please take good care of yourself and family. We continue to serve you during this trying time.
27 March 2020 Update
Gregor Gregersen, the founder of Silver Bullion, was asked by SBTV's host, Patrick Vierra, four key questions which are people's minds during these turbulent and uncertain times in the precious metals market. These are links to the four YouTube videos:
Why gold and silver prices are falling when physical demand is surging?
Why are gold and silver premiums so high right now?
Why are bullion dealers not paying more for gold and silver?
How is COVID-19 disrupting the spot market?
25 March 2020 Update
Global market uncertainty from the impact of Covid-19 is causing volatility in the spot prices of gold and silver. We have seen spot price feeds that dealers commonly subscribe to change erratically and differ substantially from other feeds. Certain feeds may not be updated as the price discovery mechanism between bullion banks and wholesalers may have froze from uncertainty in the markets.
For example, we noticed that different feeds could have a price difference of as much as $60 USD/oz within a 2-hour period between 7.30pm and around 9.45pm last night. Orders to buy bullion with Silver Bullion submitted within this period has had their prices adjust down to reflect the correct spot rate. At the same time, orders submitted to sell bullion to us will also be adjusted down or cancelled. Affected customers have been informed by email.
The above-mentioned 2-hour window is likely to coincide with news we have received that the London gold market froze sales of all 100oz and 400oz gold bars. This development was likely exacerbated by the shut down of 3 major Swiss refineries and the Royal Canadian Mint several days ago.
There are also news trickling out suggesting that some banks may have failed to deliver physical gold in COMEX due to gold shortages occuring globally. We could be seeing the physical market finally calling the bluff by the exchanges trading paper gold.
Silver Bullion is actively sourcing for bullion supplies for our customers. We seek your understanding during this unprecedented time if your orders are affected by pricing discrepancies in the market.
22 March 2020 Update
There are reports that the state council of Ticino has instructed three refiners in Ticino to be closed in light of Covid-19. Argor, PAMP and Valcambi are the biggest refiners in Ticino. Their closure looks to be extended into April 2020. Production of gold bars would no doubt be impacted causing delivery delays globally.
18 March 2020 Update
Over the last week, the prices of gold and silver as traded on futures exchanges have fallen drastically, while the demand for physical gold and silver spiked to exceptional levels in a manner that is reminiscent of 2008, 2011 and 2013. As an anecdote, Silver Bullion has sold more than 10 metric tons of silver in the past week alone, which is five times our usual sales volume. To put things in perspective, that is equivalent to 650 monster boxes of silver coins! Other metals that we offer such as gold and platinum are experiencing similar demand spikes.
When a product experiences increased demand amid falling prices, shortages are a natural consequence. To address the shortage situation, an increasing number of suppliers and virtually all bullion dealers have raised their premiums, sometimes drastically.
Despite the increase in selling premiums, most dealers are still buying metal from their customers around spot or below spot rates. This means that buy sell spreads at some dealers are typically at 40%, even exceeding 100% in some cases.
While Silver Bullion is unable to keep premiums low on the sell side while preserving supply, we can however raise our buyback prices. This ensures that holders of metal as a whole enjoy the strong increases in premiums for their physical bullion. Visit our site for updated buyback rates here.
The Bigger Picture
This is an important opportunity for Silver Bullion and our peers in the industry. We need to collectively show the markets that physical bullion dealers can reliably make our own market in time of crisis. By adjusting both sell and buyback premiums to reflect physical supply and demand, we would essentially create a market driven physical price. Only in this manner can we partially detach the physical market from the highly leveraged paper markets.
We are working around the clock to ensure that our products remain in stock during these exceptional times.