What has the Swiss National Bank been doing with the country's gold reserves?

10p ET Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Prompted by the research done this week by Turd Ferguson of the TF Metals Report showing that Switzerland's gold reserves probably were mobilized surreptitously for the smashing of the gold price in the last few years --

http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/5731/turdville-love-open-letter-good-...

-- your secretary/treasurer today wrote by e-mail to the communications office of the Swiss National Bank (communications@snb.ch) to pose six questions about that country's gold reserves and the central bank's involvement in the gold market.

These questions are entirely appropriate for a country presuming to be a democracy with limited and accountable government. But since Switzerland is facing a referendum on requiring its central bank to hold a fixed portion of its reserves in gold and to vault all its gold in Switzerland proper --

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-05/swiss-parliament-recommends-rej...

-- these questions are pretty compelling as well.

Your secretary/treasurer's e-mail is appended. Of course it would be very helpful if Swiss citizens who support GATA's work sent similar inquiries to their central bank and if they alerted GATA to any responses. It also would be helpful if the Swiss People's Party, leading advocate of the gold reserves referendum, began pressing these questions. Staid and stolid as the Swiss may be, even they might get agitated if their central bank had to disclose what it has been doing with the country's gold reserves and why.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Dear People:

I write to call your attention to this week's commentary published by the TF Metals Report asserting the probability that Swiss gold reserves have been mobilized lately to suppress the price of gold --

http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/5731/turdville-love-open-letter-good-...

-- and to ask a few questions arising from it.

1) Does the Swiss National Bank have any response to that commentary? Is it true or false?

2) Has the bank been trading in gold or gold-related financial instruments in the last five years?

3) If so, what was the bank's objective with that trading?

4) Has the bank loaned or leased gold in the last five years and is it lending or leasing gold now?

5) If so, what is the bank's objective with that lending or leasing?

6) Will the bank disclose the amount of its gold reserves that is held in metal in the bank's own vaults, the amount of its gold reserves that is held in metal in the bank's accounts with other depositories, and the amount of its gold reserves that have been loaned or leased and that is not held in the bank's own vaults or in the bank's own accounts with other depositories?

Thanks for whatever information you can provide.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.