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Can Hong Kong outshine Singapore as central banks rethink gold custody amid global risks?
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Julie ZhangPublished: 5:00pm, 4 Sep 2026As the Netherlands moved gold out of the US and Canada over geopolitical concerns, attention is turning to whether Hong Kong can capitalise on central banks rethinking where they keep their bullion.
The city faces competition from Singapore, which is expected to launch central bank gold-vaulting services in October as part of efforts to cement its status as a gold trading hub in Asia.
Where central banks chose to store gold came down to three factors, said Iggy Ioppe, a Wall Street veteran with more than two decades of experience across proprietary trading and private capital markets.
“Legal certainty, political neutrality and the ability to get the metal out and use it in a crisis without needing anyone’s permission,” he said.
“Hong Kong has no capital controls today and free convertibility is foundational policy. [The question] is what a reserve manager believes about them under stress, 10 to 20 years out.”
A real gold hub isn’t a vault, it’s a financing rail … That’s what makes London sticky, gold there doesn’t sit, it works
Where central banks stored gold appeared increasingly a growing priority for reserve managers, according to a Goldman Sachs report on August 14.
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