Panda — China's national gold coin. The reverse of the investment gold coin depicts the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
Detailed information on Goldtresor's operational principles and legal status.
IS GOLDTRESOR A GOLD BANK?
We don't have a banking licence and we have no plans to obtain one. We use the banking system, yet we operate outside it — with all the advantages and disadvantages that entails.
To understand the historical and ideological background, let's look at how the current two-tier banking system works. When someone deposits money at a bank, the bank tries to lend out that deposit — meaning only a fraction of deposits remains held in reserve. If real estate, equity or inefficient investment bubbles develop and burst, or a recession sets in, banks quickly become insolvent, as happened in 2008–2009. Government intervention became necessary. The same thing played out during the Great Depression of the 1930s. At that time, serious consideration was given to eliminating or severely restricting the two-tier banking system and replacing it with so-called "deposit banks" that would simply safeguard money and provide payment services.
Commercial banks carry significant risk — their income depends on lending, which is inherently risky. Deposit-type banks carry less risk but also make less profit. Goldtresor's activities resemble the latter, with the difference that we hold client "deposits" in physical gold — the safest asset there is.
WHAT REGULATIONS GOVERN GOLDTRESOR?
Gold account management services are governed by the EU directive on investment gold. This directive also defines the VAT exemption for investment gold, which extends to trading conducted through a precious metals account. We are also subject to the Civil Code provisions on custodial storage. Under the Civil Code, gold storage is a commodity-based custody activity, not a financial deposit service — the latter being reserved for banks. Since we don't conduct financial activities, we fall under the Budapest Government Office's Precious Metals Registry, Inspection and Examination Division, not the Hungarian National Bank. We operate an anti-money laundering system and apply internal policies equivalent to those of banks.
WHAT IS THE LEGAL STATUS OF CLIENT GOLD HELD AT GOLDTRESOR?
Client gold at Goldtresor is not a financial deposit and does not form part of Conclude's assets — it does not appear on Conclude's balance sheet. This is fundamentally different from bank deposits. Under law, a commodity deposit is not part of the insolvency estate. It must be kept separately and returned to depositors if the company were to cease operations for any reason.
CASH PAYMENTS AND SETTLEMENT NOTICES
Can you pay for gold in cash?
Yes, substantial cash purchases are possible at Conclude's headquarters by prior appointment. To deposit cash into the Goldtresor system, you go to an OTP branch and deposit the funds into our designated account. The bank carries out the required identification verification.
What paper-based statements do you provide to clients?
Goldtresor is a paperless system — we send no documents by post and sign no paper-based contracts. Everything is sent by email or uploaded to the document repository, where clients can retrieve their transaction records, monthly statements, invoices and annual summaries. You can print them as PDFs and store them offline.
CONVERTING GOLD ACCOUNT BALANCES TO GOLD BARS OR COINS
Can you walk me through the process of converting a gold account balance to gold bars?
When you press the button to convert your gold account balance into gold bars or coins of various sizes, your account is debited exactly the number of grammes contained in the selected product's fine gold content, plus the product's manufacturing cost — also expressed in gold. You receive an invoice for the conversion, since this transaction is equivalent to purchasing an investment gold product. The purchased item is automatically placed into custodial storage. You then have time to decide whether to request delivery or to keep the item in custody.
Goldtresor clients receive the requested goods immediately from Conclude's liquidity reserve.
Here's a concrete example. Suppose your gold account holds 55 grammes. You select one 50-gramme gold bar. You notice the product description lists a 2% manufacturing cost (which equals 1 gramme of gold). The system debits 51 grammes from your account and places the purchased bar into custody. Four grammes remain in your gold account (55g starting balance − 50g fine gold content of the bar − 1g manufacturing cost).
Behind the scenes: the Goldtresor client immediately receives goods from Conclude's liquidity reserve; in exchange, the client's returned gold balance transfers to Conclude. What does Conclude, as a gold dealer, do with this gold demand? As mentioned, gold account claims must be backed by 1-kilogramme gold bars. If client redemptions exceed Conclude's liquidity reserves, Conclude purchases 1kg bars from Good Delivery-certified refineries and places an order for the desired sizes. The refinery works to a fixed tariff: gold goes in and comes out in a different form — you only pay the conversion labour cost.
