To the attention of Mr. Alexandre Gautier, director of market operations at Banque de France.
January 5th, 2015
Mr. Gautier,
You made a speech, in September 2013, at the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), in which you stated the following:
- Banque de France intervenes on the gold market on its own behalf almost daily.
- Banque de France has leased some of France’s gold reserves and further leases may yet occur.
- Banque de France intervenes in the internal gold market with central banks and official institutions but does not communicate these operations.
In November 2014, you made another speech at the LBMA conference in Lima, Peru, entitled “Managing Gold as a FX Reserve Asset”, in which, notably, you talked about the gold swaps.
As we are starting the new year, 2015, could you please respond to the following questions?
(For your information, your answers to my questions will be made public on the internet at Goldbroker.com, my intention being to open a dialogue with the institution you are representing, Banque de France)
- Can you elaborate on Banque de France’s operations on the gold market, identify its counterparties and explain the objective of those transactions, including gold swaps?
- Can you specify the communications Banque de France is having with other central banks in regards with gold operations?
- Can you give us a list of the markets on which Banque de France intervenes?
- Is Banque de France participating in the CME program which provides discounts on commissions when trading on the U.S. futures markets? Can you give us some specifics on those operations and explain their objective?
- Can you confirm that Banque de France intervenes on the markets but does not communicate these operations? And if it does, for what reasons?
- When was the last official audit of the gold reserves belonging to the French people conducted and where are these reserves held? Can you communicate the serial numbers of the gold bars and/or prove their existence and authenticity?
Thank you in advance for your answers,
Cordially,
Fabrice Drouin Ristori
CEO Goldbroker.com
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