Kyiv and the West call this a baseless pretext for an aggressive land grab. 24 in what it has called a 'special military operation' aimed at demilitarising Ukraine and rooting out dangerous nationalists. Funds were saying they didn't want any Russian bars in their holdings,' the banker said. He said his phone lit up with calls after the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), a trade body that sets market standards, removed all Russian refineries from its accredited list on March 7, meaning their newly minted bars could no longer trade in London or on the COMEX exchange in New York, the biggest gold futures trading venue. You don't want to create a scramble,' one said. I told them, if you demand that your Russian metal is swapped out, you'll create a problem for yourself. They declined to be named due to the confidential nature of the conversations. The bankers said they advised their customers and other traders that they should do the same. To buttress the market, two of the bankers told Reuters they contacted clients and rival banks to tell them they would not dump Russian bullion minted before the war. The dilemma facing investors reflects Russia's heft in the global bullion trade and its hub, the London market, where gold worth around $50 billion changes hands daily in private deals.Ī rapid selloff of gold from Russia - a top three supplier - would potentially disrupt that trade by undermining the principle that all bars in the London trading system are interchangeable regardless of their origin, according to three senior bankers at major gold trading banks. It doesn't damage the (Russian) regime,' said Christopher Mellor at Invesco, whose fund has around 265 tonnes of gold, 35 tonnes of it produced in Russia with a market value of around $2 billion. 'This would only serve to damage investors. LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Some investors want Russian gold off their books but it's not that easy to remove.Ī de facto ban on Russian bullion minted after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine - instigated by the London market in early March - does not apply to hundreds of tonnes of gold that has been sitting in commercial vaults since before the conflict started.įund managers looking to sell the metal to avoid the deepening reputational risk of holding assets linked to Russia in their portfolios could trigger a costly scramble to replace it with non-Russian gold, according to bankers and investors.

Credit suisse gold bar 1 ounce