JP Morgan Gold Vault Location in London
Introduction
Location of JP Morgan Gold Vault in London Discovered: JP Morgan owns and operates one of the two large commercial gold vaults in central London, the other one being the HSBC vault. Along with the Bank of England vaults, JP Morgan and HSBC make up the three largest gold vaults in London. In total, JP Morgan is one of 8 custodians offering precious metals vaulting facilities to the London Gold Market, the other 7 being the Bank of England, HSBC, Barclays, Brinks, Loomis, Malca Amit and G4S. JP Morgan is also one of 5 banks in London that are members of London Precious Metals Clearing Limited (LPMCL), the private company which has a monopoly on gold and silver clearing services in the London Gold and Silver Markets.
On its website, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) publishes a list of custodians offering precious metals vaulting services in the London market. For JP Morgan, the address listed by the LBMA is “JP Morgan Chase, 25 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London E14 5JP”. However, this is not the location of JP Morgan’s precious metals vault in London. The location of the vault is not in Canary Wharf, but in the City of London, near Middle Temple, and between Fleet Street and Victoria Embankment.
Profile of JP Morgan
JP Morgan Chase & Co is the largest bank in the US and operates as an investment bank as well as a commercial bank. The group has a huge international presence, and JP Morgan has been involved in the gold market in New York and London for many years. The parent entity JP Morgan Chase & Co, headquartered in New York, was formed via the 2004 merger of JP Morgan & Co and The Chase Manhattan Corp, therefore the group contains the legacy of some of the US’s most powerful banking entities such as the Morgans, the Rockefellers etc. In London, JP Morgan was one of the founding members of the London Bullion Market Association in 1987 through its Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York entity.
Location of JP Morgan Vault
JP Morgan’s precious metals vault in London is a subterranean vault located in a deep basement under a JP Morgan building on John Carpenter Street, in the City of London, and very near the River Thames. In fact, the deep basement is an L-shaped structure positioned under 2 buildings, one of which is on adjacent Carmelite Street, Additionally, the actual drive-in entrance to the basement and vault is through a secure gated entrance located on Carmelite Street. Carmelite is a continuation of Whitefriar Street. Inside the entrance gate to the left, a vehicle ramp slopes downwards.
JP Morgan’s John Carpenter Street building is bordered by Tudor Street, John Carpenter Street, and Victoria Embankment. This building is used by JP Morgan Asset Management. The second building (housing the basement entrance) is an anonymous looking building bordered by Carmelite Street, Tallis Street, John Carpenter Street, and Tudor Street. The John Carpenter Street building is connected to 60 Victoria Embankment, a listed building also owned by JP Morgan which has a ‘Great Hall’ events area that was recently renovated. Therefore, the vault address has on occasion been referred to as 60 Victoria Embankment, such as in this gold transaction confirmation statement issued by the Perth Mint – . The address of the vault was also confirmed in a November 2009 article in UAE newspaper ‘The National”, which discussed “vaults of Standard Bank of South Africa, located in the London offices of JPMorgan Chase at 60 Victoria Embankment, Blackfriars, London. Standard Bank would have been using vault space within this JP Morgan vault.
Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York (the JP Morgan entity) originally took occupancy of 60 Victoria Embankment (the John Carpenter Street building) in 1991, and leased the building until December 2010, at which point JP Morgan purchased the John Carpenter Street building, possibly because of the fact that the gold vault is in the building’s basement and JP Morgan wanted ownership and not just tenancy. JP Morgan’s leas on 60 Victoria Embankment was due to expire in early 2016, so this may have expedited the purchase.
Gold Holdings at the JP Morgan London vault
Four relatively large exchange traded fund groups hold a substantial amount of gold and other precious metals at the JP Morgan vault in London.
The iShares Gold Trust (IAU) operated by Blackrock is a physically backed gold Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). JP Morgan has been the custodian of IAU since the second half of 2010. IAU holds its gold in 3 vaults in 3 different countries, namely the JP Morgan vault in London, the JP Morgan vault in New York, and the Scotia Mocatta vault in Toronto, Canada. A gold bar inspection letter of the iShares Gold Trust dated December 2015 states that the JP Morgan London vault held 7011 Good Delivery gold bars on behalf of the trust at that time.
Given the large investment inflows into gold ETFs during the first quarter of 2016, the iShares Gold Trust was storing 9,355 Good Delivery gold bars (117 tonnes) at JP Morgan’s London vault as of 11 April 2016. The IAU gold bar list, which can change daily, can be viewed on the iShares website.
Article Courtesy of: BullionStar
