The Zurich vault

What is special about the Zurich vault ?

Who are Via Mat?

Can you prove my gold is in the vault ?

Is my gold insured ?

Is Via Mat associated with BullionVault ?

Does Via Mat itself warrant gold bar quality ?

How does gold get to the vault after I buy ?

Is my gold held in a trust ?

Why is my bullion not stored in a bank ?

Where is my bullion ?

Like all BullionVault storage facilities the Zurich (Switzerland) vault is run on our behalf by ViaMat, one of the world's largest operators of professional bullion vaults. Only Via Mat staff ever handle BullionVault gold.

A section of Via Mat's Zurich vault is reserved exclusively for BullionVault customers. Your gold is there.

The Zurich vault operates under Swiss jurisdiction.

What form does my gold take ?

The Zurich (Swiss) vault stores primarily 400 troy oz (12.4kg) London Good Delivery bars. They have a minimum assayed purity of 99.5%. Your gold balance on BullionVault consists of the 100% pure content of those bars, which is calculated by multiplying each bar's gross weight by its measured purity.

These bars are the acceptable form for dealers in the Swiss bullion market.

What is specific about the Zurich vault ?

The primary attraction of Zurich is that it is in Switzerland. The Swiss have a deserved reputation as one of the strongest supporters of foreigners' property rights in the world, and to a considerable extent they have built their economy around that reputation.

They have the world's most advanced international private banking sector.
As a result of the profits of their financial services industry the Swiss have the world's highest standard of living.
In turn this produces one of the most stable and conservative political environments anywhere in the world.

Swiss charges for bullion delivery to the vault are marginally higher than for the other vaults, and consequently the BullionVault offer price tends to be slightly higher too.

Many people would like to own property in Switzerland, but find the entry level to Swiss private banking is too high. $500,000 is a common starting point for a private bank account, and servicing fees frequently start at thousands of dollars a year.

BullionVault lowers both the barrier to entry and the annual costs. With charges at 0.12% per annum and subject to a minimum of only $48 a year you can economically use our Zurich vault to store in Switzerland sums as small as a few thousand dollars in gold.

Misconceptions about Switzerland

Anonymous numbered accounts

There is no such thing as an anonymous numbered Swiss bank account. All Swiss bank accounts are associated with a known identity even if some are so sensitive as to maintain their records within a bank's accounting system with a number, which links to a single record of the customer's identity held discreetly in a safe. This is usually done to preserve identity even from most bank staff - but never all of them. BullionVault does not support numbered gold accounts. All our accounts must be for verified identities of real people and organisations.

Criticism over neutrality

The strength of foreigners' property rights on occasion gets the Swiss into trouble. In particular they still find themselves in difficulties over their care of Nazi money. Maintaining a position of strict international neutrality is not easy and - given hindsight - has made the Swiss appear tolerant of some ugly customers. Nevertheless many descendants of the victims of Nazism choose Switzerland as the means to protect themselves from future persecution.

100% bank secrecy

There is no 100% guarantee of bank secrecy in Switzerland. After some pressure from their neighbours and the global financial community the Swiss have agreed to lift the veil of banking secrecy whenever a customer is suspected of involvement in serious crime - for example rackets associated with terrorism, drugs or violence.

The Swiss have to walk a careful line to protect their foreign custom. On the one hand they do not antagonise their neighbours and trading partners by hiding the money of career criminals. It is not in the Swiss business interest to attract either the money of gangsters and tyrants or the criticism of the civilised world which follows it. So they reject those types of customers wherever they find them (and so does BullionVault).

On the other hand they refuse to recognise tax issues as serious crime. They are right to do so because there is a long tradition of governments raising taxes in such a way as to turn into criminals all their citizens who have savings. The Swiss regard the protection of those savings as having a moral precedence over the actions of those types of government. This is their unique contribution to personal liberty everywhere.