The gold and silver

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The largest German bank and some of its rivals have been affected knows a number of other scandals and investigations on the manipulation of interest rates and exchange rates between currencies (and according to some, myself included, such as gold and silver as currencies should be considered . Er)

The  investigations globally on the supposed manipulation of currency markets have intensified, with the regulatory authorities of the United States that have been submitted to the London offices of Citigroup and Deutsche has suspended some of its traders in New York, some sources have know Reuters.

Deutsche is one of the 5 banks that take part in a pair of times a day to "gold fix", the establishment of international reference price (benchmark) of gold that occurs in London, and did you know that this process having already abandoned withdrawn from its general business commodities.

"Deutsche Bank is withdrawing ITS participation in the gold and silver benchmark setting process Following the significant scaling back of our commodities business. REMAIN We fully committed to our precious metals business,"


In mid-December the German regulator BaFin has made ​​a request for documents to Deutsche Bank because of an investigation into the suspected manipulation of the benchmark price of gold and silver from the banks, as reported by the Financial Times citing its sources. Since then Deutsche declined to comment on the FT report.

The BaFin has reaffirmed in December that in addition to rig the LIBOR, the benchmark interest rates by banks, is also controlling the processes of determination of other benchmarks, such as those in the price of gold and silver, by individual banks.

The BaFin declined to comment Friday, but his president Elke Koenig said the day before that you understand well how the subject is raising attention and concern on the part of many.

"These Allegations (about currencies and precious metals) are Particularly serious, Because longer available reference values ​​are based - unlike LIBOR and Euribor - Typically on real transactions in liquid markets and not on estimates of the banks,"


A source close all'FCA English (Financial Conduct Authority) said Friday that regulators have been working a lot on all benchmarks, including commodities and gold. "So the regulators are returning once again to focus on these issues," the source said.

Deutsche has also been named in legal cases related to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, credit default swaps, mortgage, and tax evasion in a case that has lasted a decade opened by the heirs of media mogul Leo Kirch, who accuse the bank to have undermined their business.

The bank has set aside € 1.2 billion for potential legal expenses in the third quarter of 2013, draining the profits and driving up the total amount of its statutory reserves to 4.1 billion euro.

CRISIS OF FIXING GOLD?

A source close to Deutsche said on Friday that the bank was trying to sell his seat at meetings of the fixing of the price of gold and silver to another member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).

But the decision could foreshadow Deutsche moves by other banks fixing, another source said the precious metals market in London. "I would not be surprised if other banks now want to leave the decision-making mechanism of the price. Why would they want to aggravate their situation? "Said the source, who preferred to remain anonymous.

"The point which is of more concern is that if you can no longer proceed with the London fixing, then how do you do it? There are a lot of business that base their contracts on the London gold fix, and if you do not have a basis on what is the price someone will lose. "

The withdrawal from the fixing is not expected to have impact on the business in precious metals Deutsche, said a source close to the bank. "Only a very small volume of trade occurs during the fix. Most occur outside of this mechanism. "

The gold fixing takes place in a conference call with four other banks:

- Bank of Nova Scotia-ScotiaMocatta
- Barclays Bank Plc
- HSBC U.S. Bank, NA
- Société Générale

All of these banks have declined to comment on the move by Deutsche.

The Presidency (chairmanship) dellle sessions of the gold fixing rotates annually among the five nominated banks.

The last time one of the 5 seats changed hands was in 2004, when the NM Rothschild and Sons has sold his seat to Barclays. Two years before his vendto Credit Suisse had to Société Générale.

MECHANISM OF GOLD FIXING

At the start of each fixing the price of gold the president announces an initial price to the other four members, who shall communicate it to their customers and in accordance with the orders they receive from these instruct their representatives to tell if that price buyers say they are or sellers. The price of gold is then adjusted upwards or downwards until the offer and wonder come together and at that time it is stated that the price is "fixed", is fixed.

These fixing are used to determine the spot prices for the billions of dollars that are exchanged every day in the two precious metals.