Damned Turks! Who the hell do they think they are -- Indians?

Why Turks Are Skipping Banks and Keeping Their Gold at Home

By Mehmet Cetingulec
Al-Monitor, Washington, D.C.
Monday, March 13, 2016

Gold jewelry that adorns the arms and necks of many Turkish women is actually a traditional instrument of savings. Newlyweds put together their initial capital with gold coins, trinkets, and jewelry pinned on them at weddings. But this gold, once hidden at home, has absolutely no benefit to the economy.

These gold hoards are estimated to have reached 5,000 tons. The value of gold has been on an upward trend: On March 14 it reached 3,582.85 Turkish lira ($1,249.22) per ounce. That means the under-the-mattress overall value of gold is now almost 580 billion Turkish lira ($201 billion).

The Istanbul Gold Refinery has been striving for five years in cooperation with banks to draw this gold back into the economy. In a project involving 11 banks, refinery experts inspect and assess the gold brought in by bank clients. When the amount is logged into the clients' accounts, the physical gold becomes registered gold.

The refinery explains the benefit of the system: "Gold will be safe. There will be no risk of theft or loss. The state guarantee for the gold deposit accounts is 150,000 Turkish lira. They are available 24 hours for transactions. Clients can cash any amount they want from their gold accounts." ...

... For the remainder of the report:

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/03/turkey-billions-of-dol...