UK Financial Conduct Authority Considering Au as 'Standard Asset'

House · Apr 25, 2014

U.K. gold demand will get a boost from investors saving up for retirement with the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority considering adding bullion to its list of "standard assets," brokerage GoldCore Ltd. said.

The Financial Services Authority, replaced last year by the FCA to oversee market regulation, published a consultation paper with the list in 2012, asking whether other types of investment should be added. Cash, bonds and exchange-traded commodities were included and physical gold was not. The FCA's decision if other assets can be added is expected by the end of June, Dublin-based Goldcore said in a report today.

"It should lead to an increased demand for gold and to gold being on the radar of more mainstream investors," Mickey O'Neil, a director at GoldCore, which manages more than $200 million in bullion, said in a phone interview yesterday. "If that happened, it would contribute to gold being seen almost as a mainstream asset."

Investment-grade gold is permitted in self-invested personal pensions since 2006 and featuring on the regulator's roll would help raise awareness that pension funds can invest in physical bullion, according to GoldCore.

Gold remains a "niche" investment because only "very few people are aware that you can actually put physical gold into a pension fund," O'Byrne said. Current allocations to bullion are "very low," with 5.2 percent of GoldCore's clients having gold in their pension fund, he said.
Standard Investments

Standard investments were defined by the FSA as any asset "capable of being accurately and fairly valued on an ongoing basis, readily realized whenever required, up to a maximum of 30 days, and for an amount that can be reconciled with the previous valuation." Non-standard investments include all other assets, according to the regulator.

"In 1980, 20 percent of investment funds were allocated to gold and today the figure is believed to be less than 2 or 3 percent," O'Byrne said. "That shows that there is room for a significant rise in the demand for gold in pension funds and an increase in the overall allocations to gold within pension portfolios."
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Boomblerg

Pirocco · Apr 27, 2014

"About Gold Core. GoldCore are respected international bullion dealers who are experts in the execution and logistics of the highly specialised precious metals market."
Would any gold seller say that the gold price will drop, and to wait to buy till then?
Just a Funneh Question!

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UK Financial Conduct Authority Considering Au as 'Standard Asset'

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UK Financial Conduct Authority Considering Au as 'Standard Asset'

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