Switzerland's Niche in Global Gold Trade Draws Scrutiny
By GCRU Gold News on Sunday, December 25 2016, 23:22 - Permalink
All four Swiss-based refiners have been accused in recent years of lapses related to the alleged facilitation of money laundering, human rights abuses and war crimes.
The Swiss government is expected to respond to a parliamentary proposal made last year for new restrictions on the industry’s acquisition of gold. Voters may have a say in about two years on a measure that could force refiners and other multinationals to disclose data on the human-rights records of their suppliers.
A report published earlier this month by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, which sets standards for combating money laundering, flagged related risks associated with Switzerland’s gold trade. FATF assessors “wonder how well” those risks “are understood by the sector,” the report stated.
Due to its refining industry, Switzerland imports gold in quantities nearly equal to the amount officially taken from the earth in any given year. Last year, Switzerland imported the equivalent of 81% of the world’s gold production from mines, according to publicly available data.
Switzerland's Niche in Global Gold Trade Draws Scrutiny
