Loading ...LONDON (Reuters) – Banks are making huge profits from gold as investors flood into a market fractured by the coronavirus crisis.
The world’s largest 50 investment banks are on track to double their income from precious metals this year to around $2.5 billion, most of it from gold, Coalition, a banking consultancy, told Reuters.
“$1.2 billion was the earnings pool last year. This year we already crossed that number,” said Coalition research director Amrit Shahani.
The juicy rewards, which have not previously been reported, mark a stunning reversal of fortune for bullion banks. In March, some had to wipe hundreds of millions of dollars off their trading books as the global pandemic snarled the supply of gold bars.
That disruption sowed the seeds for the current bonanza.