To the attention of Mr. Alexandre Gautier, director of market operations
at Banque de France.
Email sent 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
