Hasbeen, don't answer this question;
If you have gold and are having it held for safe keeping, the normal
practise is to issue a certificate.
However also "normal" practise is to sell the same gold to other customers.
If it hits the fan they cannot give everyone their own gold.

I was surprised that just making a deposit to account did not make it active !
Then that is definitely criminal as it is definately active.

Yuyutsu, I would not rely on tejephoning them, they just hang up and forget.

Another warning; the Financial Stability Board of the IMF and G20 countries
will have its final rules adopted at the G20 meeting in Brisbane next
month, or is it August ?
The FSB is already in operation and signed up to by Wayne Swan in St Petersburg a couple of years back.
The FSB is the body that can seize depositors funds in a bank and use
those funds to pay off the banks debts.

So where do you put your money ?
I can only suggest that you spread it aeound a number of banks but
while that might be OK if only one fails, what if the collapse covers all currencies and financial institutions ?

The FSB's last operation in Cyprus was a "success" and confirmed the
method. One bank was saved and the other was closed for good.
The people whose deposits were seized got shares in the bank that was closed !
Very nice of them wasn't it ?

The Russians who had a lot of money in Cyprus got wind of what was to
happen the next morning and went into the Moscow branch of the Cyprus
during the night and extracted all their money.
That meant of course more depositors lost larger amounts of money.

Frankly I don't know what to do myself, except buy tens of $1000 worth
of tinned food !
As I said earlier, I am reading Trainter's Collapse of Complex Societies
and it does not make me any less concerned about the stability of our economy.

More wrong information, Arjay.

>>HSBC in Great Britain wants reasons from depositors withdrawing just $3000<<

There were a couple of instances back in January, due to a confusing instruction to bank staff. HSBC very quickly amended this, once its implementation became a problem:

"...following feedback, we are immediately updating guidance to our customer facing staff to reiterate that it is not mandatory for customers to provide documentary evidence for large cash withdrawals, and on its own, failure to show evidence is not a reason to refuse a withdrawal. We are writing to apologise to any customer who has been given incorrect information and inconvenienced."

So much for your theory that this "looks like a banking crisis..."

You will never learn the value of genuine research, will you. Just in case it contradicts your latest doomsday scenario.

Bazz, you are right that the banks' policy poses a problem, but wrong to suggest that this is anything new, or indeed unusual.

>>So where do you put your money ?<<

There has never been a time when your money has been "safe" in a Bank. Many have collapsed over the years - and centuries, - taking their depositors' funds with them. Only recently has there been this mythology that they are separate from fiscal reality, and your money somehow survives any and all financial disasters.

If you really are concerned, under the mattress is probably the safest haven for your cash.

I agree Pericles, you money has never been safe but previously depositors
were higher in priority. Also the government guarantee does not protect you.
Now your deposit is considered to be just the same as any other investment.
Previously you would be listed as a creditor, but the way I read it
that is longer so.
Now if the FSB takes the money that is it.

Pericles, the banks have built instability into the system with their gambling in derivatives. Of course they are in crisis otherwise there would be no need for "Bail in" ,asking reasons for withdrawals or having negative interest rates.

You are an absolute fool Pericles if you think this a stable financial system. Never before has so much fiat currency been created, never before have we had so many toxic derivatives without a Glass Steagall Act to temper any of their excesses.

Bazz I would never consider having a bit of paper actually meant I owned any gold. That is no better than having a bank statement telling you had money. The only safe way is to own & possess metal.

I found it interesting when New Guinea changed to their own currency the kina & toea.

Everyone reckoned the "bush kanaka" was a dumb bloke. Yes right.

They sent a ship from Rabaul to circumnavigate New Britain, changing dollars to kina. They took 3 million kina for a one for one exchange, to do the island. They only got a hundred miles down the coast before they ran out of money. Not only that, most of the locals wouldn't touch paper. It doesn't last too well underground.

They got 10s of thousands of the old pre war shilling with a hole through the middle, but only for solid metal toea. That money was going back underground, where it was safe.

I think they ended up changing 21 million just on New Britain. Those bushies are not quite as poor as authorities thought.