Today's global crisis - a message from Paul Tustain

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Dear BullionVault user,

 

More than usual I hope this email finds you well.

 

The distressing times which lie ahead are not what anyone expected, but it is the type of thing we have been preparing for since 2003, both financially and organisationally.

 

So far as your gold, silver or platinum is concerned, I cannot think of a way it could be better secured, as your fully-insured outright physical property, while remaining 24/7 accessible to trade (should you need to) via your internet connection, and always within a whisker of the world market price.

 

Many of you will regularly examine our Daily Audit.  No-one else provides you with this transparent daily proof that we can locate, identify and account for every single gram of metal we segregate and look after for you and for all our other customers.

 

Aside from your segregated customer property BullionVault's balance sheet is also extra-ordinarily robust.  We have always hated debt, and so far as our very modest creditors are concerned we could pay all of them on demand, and have cash and gold left over to run our operations at their current level for 6 years – even without a single cent of revenue over that time.  This is a level of caution and preparedness which I believe is unmatched anywhere in the commercial world.

 

In specific response to the coronavirus most of our staff are now working from home – primarily to protect them from infection risks on public transport, but also to avoid a simultaneous series of infections from disrupting our services to customers.  Fortunately (aside from me) they are a youthful crew, and I expect and hope they would all recover quickly were they to fall ill. 

 

So, we are justifiably confident of our ability to continue operations.  Nevertheless, if the level of our service should slip a little then I must apologise in advance for the fact that we have had to opt for home working. 

 

As our Trustpilot reviews will show, we set enormous store by our levels of customer service, but I will be pleasantly surprised if the technology we are now using (telephony over an encrypted virtual private network extended into staff homes) does not prove itself to be just a little less effective than having our people here in the office, working alongside each other.  So please be just a little tolerant if you experience less than you have learned to expect.

 

I do need to mention your cash balance – if you hold a substantial one with BullionVault.  Of course it is held fully segregated, in trust, and at a reputable bank (Lloyds Bank or Wells Fargo) but do not forget banks are in business to lend into a world of borrowers who, taken together, are now extraordinarily indebted and unusually fragile.  This renders it impossible for anyone to assess with confidence the balance sheet of a modern bank. 

 

In essence, BullionVault's purpose is to offer you an exit from that world, and to allow you to convert your bank monetary assets into directly owned, physical precious metals.  I remind you of this because under our Ts&Cs, while we do guarantee all your metal balances we do not guarantee your unspent money held for you in client trust accounts against the failure of the bank – Lloyds or Wells Fargo – which holds it. 

 

We certainly believe such a failure is still unlikely to happen, but we must recognise that like everyone we are insufficiently expert to assess the creditworthiness – even of these powerful banks – with justifiable confidence. So if you have a cash balance held with us, in our client trust account, we would prefer it if you bought some metal (which renders it immune to credit risk) or, if you are not expecting to buy metal in the reasonably near future, to please withdraw it.

 

As I sign off we at BullionVault wish you and your families and friends a healthy, long and prosperous future.  I hope your BullionVault holdings have been proving their worth to you over recent weeks.  I say with complete conviction that BullionVault will do everything in its considerable power to assist you in navigating the choppy financial waters we all find ourselves in. 

 

​Kind regards,

 

Paul Tustain
Founder, Chairman, BullionVault