Thousands of gold bars have been withdrawn from the Bank of England’s vaults since the end of last year amid fears around the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war.
Threadneedle Street said roughly 8,000 bars had been moved out of its vaults in the past couple of months, representing around 2pc of the total stock.
Sir Dave Ramsden, a deputy governor of the Bank, said it had been inundated with requests after gold prices on the futures market in New York surged above the London cash price.
The wait to withdraw bullion stored in the Bank’s vaults has risen from a few days to several weeks as traders rush to take advantage of differences in price.
Traders are also nervous that the US president will impose new tariffs on bullion as part of his trade war.
Sir Dave insisted the Bank would be able to fulfil all the requests it received but warned that the challenge of moving bullion out of the Bank and across borders meant delays were inevitable.
He added that most of the Bank’s delivery slots had been taken by regular customers. Sir Dave said: “If you are coming in new to us, you might have to wait a bit longer, because all the existing slots are booked up.
“But this is a very orderly process. It is worth stressing compared to some of the markets we usually talk about, gold is a physical asset, so there are real logistical constraints and security constraints.
“Getting into the Bank for me this morning was a bit trickier because there was a lorry in the bullion yard. That’s just the reality of it. It takes time and the stuff is also quite heavy. But … we’ve got slots for people who currently want to get their gold.”
The Bank holds more than 400,000 gold bars, largely on behalf of other central banks and gold dealers.
The UK’s gold reserves are also held at the Bank on behalf of the Treasury.
Gordon Brown sold roughly half Britain’s gold reserves between 1999 and 2002 when he was chancellor and prices stood near record lows.
Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank, said last month that he was not concerned about the increase in demand for withdrawals of bullion from the Bank.
He said: “London remains the major gold market in the world. If you are involved in that market and want to trade or use your gold, you really need to have it in London.”
