(UPDATED) The Singapore Valuable Metals Trade is providing small quantities of gold bullion for affordable costs that may be purchased utilizing a cellphone app
Fancy proudly owning your individual gold bars that you could admire and take selfies with?
With the coronavirus fuelling demand for safe-haven belongings for traders to park their money, a Singapore alternate is providing mom-and-pop traders what it says is a neater strategy to get their fingers on the valuable steel.
The Singapore Valuable Metals Trade is searching for to put off the notion buying and selling in bullion is just for skilled traders or the super-rich, by providing small quantities for affordable costs that may be purchased utilizing a cellphone app.
“After we first began our enterprise a decade in the past, clearly we attracted the elite group, individuals who had cash,” chief government Victor Foo instructed AFP.
“But it surely’s our aspiration to have the ability to attain the mass market.”
The worth of an oz of gold topped US$2,000 for the primary time final month – fueled by worries concerning the financial impression of the virus in addition to future inflation – and Foo says gross sales have risen.
However 80% of his clients are nonetheless high-net-worth people and the alternate’s hottest providing is a one kilogram (2.2 pound) gold bar – setting them again greater than US$60,000.
Foo is, nevertheless, eager to emphasize you can begin a lot smaller.
For round US$70 you should buy one gram – a wafer the scale of an SD reminiscence card – whereas mini-bars weighing 5, 10, 50 and 100 grams are additionally obtainable.
SGPMX says it’s the world’s first treasured metals alternate solely backed by bodily bullion, and traders can flip up at any time when they prefer to admire their trove.
Whereas virus-related journey curbs have halted most visits from abroad for now, there’s a regular stream in standard occasions – with Japanese significantly eager to take a look at their investments.
“They go to us every year, they see their factor, take photos, ‘wefie’, then they go,” Foo mentioned.
The bullion is saved at Le Freeport, a fortified, Fort Knox-like vault close to the city-state’s important airport set as much as home treasures from all over the world and personal artwork collections.
Safety is tight – the gold is saved inside vaults protected by huge steel doorways and thick partitions that block cell phone indicators.
Most traders are from Europe and the US, however Foo predicts the quantity from Asia will improve within the coming years.
It could be arduous to alter age-old habits nevertheless. Whereas gold is widespread amongst many Asian communities, it’s usually purchased within the type of jewelry to provide as presents at particular events, quite than in bars and cash. – Rappler.com
