Inhaltsseite: Home

Theme Investing

Invest responsibly in gold

Thursday, 15 April 2021 Reading time : 3 minutes

New consciousness for commodity investments
Gold is gold - or is it? It is not only when buying food that consumers today want to know where their products come from, investors nowadays also have a greater awareness of responsible and sustainable products. Where does the raw material come from when investors invest in the most popular precious metal? To answer this question, Zürcher Kantonalbank has issued the new ZKB Tracker Certificate on Traceable Gold. The tracker certificate tracks the development of the current gold price in CHF minus costs. With an investment in a tracker certificate, the customer does not acquire the underlying asset (fine ounce of gold). The physical purchase of the gold takes place through the trading of the Zürcher Kantonalbank as a hedging transaction for the certificate. The trader replicates our tracker certificate with so-called Traceable Gold, i.e. gold whose origin can be fully traced back.

Traceability – a definition
For the purchase of Traceable Gold, Zürcher Kantonalbank exclusively works with Swiss refineries. With Traceable Gold, the mine of origin is known for each bar. A DNA-based technology enables precise and science-based proof of origin of gold from industrial mines in selected countries.

From mine to certificate
When selecting countries and mines, the refinery strictly follows recognized international standards and guidelines*. These essentially are concerned with the observance of human rights, combating money laundering, corruption and the financing of terrorism, as well as a more sustainable approach to nature. Still in the mine, at the place of its origin, the raw gold is sprayed with a DNA marker.

On arrival at the refinery, the raw gold is tested for the DNA marker by means of a PCR test, thus providing proof of origin. This method makes it much more difficult to mix gold from unclear or questionable sources and production standards can be clearly assigned. The processing of the raw material into bars in the refinery then takes place on segregated production lines. After the acquisition from the refinery, Zürcher Kantonalbank stores the Traceable Gold bars segregated in the vault of the Zürcher Kantonalbank.

The ZKB Tracker Certificate tracks the development of the gold price minus costs. For the mapping, all hedging transactions in the underlying are carried out with Traceable Gold.

go to product

*World Gold Council, London Bullion Market Association, LBMA Good Delivery, LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance


Ajax loading