Governments around the world including the United States have been utilising monetary policy to aid their economies tide through this pandemic. I think that by now, you would understand with governments injecting liquidity into the market, inflation inevitably will creep up, which will in turn reduce your purchasing power. Investors are now looking at various assets to protect their wealth and if you chose Gold; should you buy into Physical Gold or Gold ETFs?
Let’s have a quick run-through for both forms of investment. With Gold ETFs, you get a transparent and convenient way to invest in gold. As long as the market is open, you are able to buy and sell Gold ETFs on the exchange, making it as easy as trading stocks on the stock exchange. Prices are relatively more inexpensive as the costs for production (premiums) are excluded from the ETFs. Furthermore, you do not have to be concerned on the storage of the assets.
However, with Physical Gold, it is one of the most secure form of investment. You are not exposed to any third-party risks as you are in full control of the asset yourself. In the event of unforeseen catastrophes, the value of your asset will still be there giving you the financial insurance you are looking for.
What if there is a third option that somehow allows you to have the best of both worlds? That third option will be Pool Allocated Gold. Rather than buying Physical Gold (fully allocated), you can purchase Pool Allocated Gold which is physical deliverable as it has the underlying physical precious metal, without paying the premiums upfront. At this stage, you enjoy the convenience of Gold ETFs, allowing to buy and sell anytime during the opening hours of the market. Should a time of emergency come, and you want the security of Physical Gold, you can simply swap your pool allocated holdings into physical Gold by paying the premium and bring your Gold bars home. This is essentially what GSC Live! allows you to do! Read more about GSC Live! and open your account today!
Sin Pong
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, several countries around the world were in lockdown to curb its spread, this led to consumers spending less and saving up more this period. Where can we deploy our funds to weather the uncertainties in the economy? How do we buy into safe haven assets such as precious metals?
And who can we trust?
Precious metals unfortunately is an asset favored by scammers, con artists as its value is well recognized globally. Then how do we navigate this minefield and know who to trust?
Look for dealers and storage partners who have weathered through multiple bull and bear markets and are regulated by the local government bodies or have membership to the relevant associations in their country or in their region they are located in. This will further ascertain their credibility and standing within their fieldOne of the storage options GSC would highly recommend are those being offered by the Perth Mint. With more than 100-years of experience in the business and the only precious metals accumulation program with a Government-Guarantee; this is a private banking product that is now offered to all clients!
The Perth Mint Certificate Program (PMCP), makes it affordable to own Gold, Silver, and Platinum with the world’s only Government-Guarantee! Better still, they have solutions without storage fees!
With the rapid rate of digitalization, investors now prefer online solutions that they can manage and execute themselves even for asset transactions. The Perth Mint Depository Distributor Online (PMDDO) with the same Government Guarantee as the PMCP, answers that need. PMDDO has a much lower minimum transaction size and allows client to purchase, sell, store, and deliver Gold, Silver and Platinum online 24/5.
To find out more about the PMCP and PMDDO, please feel free to call us at +65 6222 9703 or email us at pmcp@goldsilvercentral.com.sg.
GoldSilver Central is a homegrown company established since 2011, is honored to be the only authorized distributor in Singapore to provide investors with access to the PMCP and PMDDO.
If you have more queries on the standards in the precious metals industry and trying to know who are the dealers and storage partners you can trust, you may look into:
London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) who work closely with the precious metals stakeholders and set the standards for the industry; and Singapore Bullion Market Association (SBMA), similar to SBMA but their focus is more on Singapore and the Asia market.
Suzane
A recently reported fraud news in Singapore involving physical Gold bars unfortunately showcased the often used asset of choice by fraudsters, fake con artists and money launderers. This plagues the industry from time to time and gives a bad name to precious metals investing for serious investors and trusted dealers.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is an inter-governmental body that sets international standards aimed to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF). Similar to other important financial centers globally, Singapore is a member of FATF and has taken action to tighten regulations and reduce the harm caused by these illegal activities to society.
For the precious metals sector, Singapore had passed the Precious Stones and Precious Metals Act (PSPM Act) in April 2019 that introduced an anti-money laundering and countering of terrorism financing regime to strengthen Singapore’s overall efforts to counter money laundering and terrorism financing.
GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd (GSC), as a regulated and trusted dealer in Singapore registered under the PSPM Act, complies with and performs the required customer due diligence (CDD) and enhanced customer due diligence (ECDD) processes.
Regulated dealers under the PSPM Act are prohibited from performing any transaction if the required CDD process is not completed or fulfilled. And for cash transactions, regulated dealers are further required for compliance reporting for amounts above $20,000 to the related regulatory bodies.
All regulated dealers have also been advised to display prominently the Ministry of Law’s Notice for Customers (as shown below).
The World Gold Council (WGC) is the market development organisation for the Gold industry. The WGC recently produced the Retail Gold Investment Principles (RGIP) which provides high level, best practice guidance for providers of retail Gold products. GoldSilver Central, which is also a corporate member of the Singapore Bullion Market Association (SBMA), supports and adheres to the guidelines found in WGC’s RGIP.
You may learn more about the RGIPs here.
As a regulated and responsible dealer in our industry, we want to always support and help build trust in our precious metals community for a safe and responsible trading environment for our clients and business partners.
GSC Compliance Team