Earlier this week the major central banks of Europe, including the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank, signed the fourth central bank gold agreement.
The aim of the agreement is to bring clarity with respect to their gold holdings and to prevent any disruptions to the market. Not an unimportant event given that the ECB, plus the other major European banks who are signatories to the agreement, collectively hold about 37% of the world’s official gold holdings and one-fifth of all the gold ever mined. In the agreement the banks specified that:
