Pension scheme to benefit from excess gold

More than 1,000 tons of gold have so far been sold, according to National Bank spokesman Roland Baumann.

He estimates that only 130 tons of the excess reserves will still be in the bank’s vaults at the end of the year.

Garelli says moves are being made in other countries, including in neighbouring France, to follow Switzerland’s example.

“Many governments have discovered that the central banking system has accumulated a lot of [gold] reserves which are actually not needed any more in the modern monetary system,” he said.