N e w s

Yesterday the Bank of Russia made public the new regulations concerning calculation of the open currency position which will come into effect on April 1. In the essence, the CB has given gold and other precious metals the status of foreign currency. Banks, actively working on the gold market, were virtually shocked. The new CB instruction on changing the order of maintaining an open currency position has first of all affected these banks. The gold market mechanism operates totally different from the currency market. Normally, in the beginning of a gold mining season bank provides an advance credit of 25-30% from the expected output to the miners, which will be returned in "live" gold in the fall. This means that the majority of banks involved in active advancement of gold output will considerably exceed the limit of the open currency position.