Harvey's blogspot - gold and silver data and news items , plus non redundant news articles of the day....

http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2012/08/spanish-bad-loans-increase.html

SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 2012

Spanish bad loans increase dramatically/Spain to issue increasing levels of debt/

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

Gold closed up today by 40 cents to $1616.50.  Silver fell by 21 cents to $28.00  in the rather lacklustre day. The only big news of the day came from Spain where it announced an increase in bad banks loans.  It also said it will probably increase it's offerings through sovereign auctions.We will see these and other stories but first....

Let us now proceed to the comex and assess trading.  The total gold comex rose slightly by 353 contracts to rest this weekend at 386,408.  The Thursday night close came in at 386,055.  Gold has a great day on Thursday, so it is surprising to see such a shallow gain in OI.  The August gold delivery month saw its OI fall by 92 contracts.  On Thursday we had 88 delivery notices on Thursday so we only lost 4 contracts to cash settlements or 400 oz of gold.   The Sept delivery month saw its OI fall by 35 contracts where this weekend's resting place is 1340 contracts.  The next delivery month is October and here the OI actually rose by 849 contracts from 29,426 to 30,275.  October is a very weak delivery month as most decide to play December. The estimated volume on Friday was the lowest I have seen in many years coming in at 78,976 compared to the confirmed volume on Thursday at 117,718.The total silver comex OI continues to baffle our CME and bankers. It rose again on Friday by a rather large 1244 contracts from 125,645 to 126,889. Again we are back to 3 year highs in OI. The August delivery month strangely saw its OI rise by 31 contracts from 51 to 81 despite only 4 delivery notices on Thursday.

We thus gained 27 contracts or an additional 135,000 oz of silver standing. We are now less than 2 weeks away from first day notice in the silver September contract.  In the September month of silver we saw OI fall from 41,748 to 40,776.  All of these paper players moved into December.  The September OI still remains elevated. The estimated volume at the silver comex on Friday was anemic at 27,881 compared to the confirmed volume of 59,225 contracts on Thursday.

*****

On Friday we had no activity as everybody seems to have taken off for the weekend.

The only transaction was an adjustments at JPM of 196.32 oz of gold repaid to a customer and leaving the dealer.

The total registered or dealer gold rests tonight at 2.955 million oz or 91.9 tonnes of gold.

The CME announced that we had 131 notices filed for 13100 oz of gold.  The total number of notices
filed so far this month total 9395 for 939,500 oz.  To obtain what is left to be filed upon, I take the OI standing for Aug (369) and subtract out Friday's notices (131) which leaves us with 248 notices or 24800 oz left to be served upon our longs.

Thus the total number of gold ounces standing in the month of August is as follows:

935,500 oz (served)  +  24,800 oz (to be served upon) =  960,300 oz or 29.8 tonnes of gold
we lost 400 oz from Thursday's level.

****

We had considerable activity in the gold vaults today.

We had no dealer deposit and no dealer withdrawal.
The customer had the following deposit:

i) Into JPM: 625,214.60 oz
ii) Into Scotia:  1,766,5676.300 oz.

total deposit;  2,391,780.90 oz

that was some deposit!!

We had the following silver withdrawal:

a) Out of Delaware:  15,131.30 oz
b) Out of Scotia: 190,816.17 oz

total withdrawal:  205,947.47 oz
we had no adjustments.

Thus the registered or dealer inventory rests this weekend at 35.479 million oz
The total of all silver rests at 140.676 million oz.

The CME informed us today that we had another good 26 notices filed for130,000 ozThe total number of notices filed so far this month total 184 for 920,000 oz. To obtain what is left to be

served upon , I take the OI standing for August (81) and subtract out today's notices (26) which leaves us with 55 notices or 275,000 oz left to be served upon our longs.

Thus the total number of silver ounces standing in this delivery month of August is as follows:

920,000 oz (served)  +  275,000 oz (to be served upon )  =  1,195,000 oz

we gained another 27 contracts or 135,000 additional silver oz standing.
I promised you that we would have above 1 million oz standing and it looks like this will be true.

***

From Jim Willie and Bill Murphy of GATA:



From Jim Willie…
News come from a Hat Trick Letter subscriber who works at BNParibas in London. He wrote in early August,

"US authorities now going after RBS and Standard Chartered for money laundering. The crack between the Anglo-Saxon bankers is now apparent. Maybe bigger news will be coming out after Olympics are over. Just another observation. On my Bloomberg terminal, the bid/offer for Gold being quoted used to be dominated by Deutsche Bank and UBS. The waterfall declines were usually the handiwork of DBank. Over the last week or so, a new ticker has popped up making quotes which has started to set the price. It is ICBC (Industrial & Commercial Bank of China)."

Bill Murphy on the above:

Wow! The Chinese banks are entering the room to counter the corrupt London protectors of the free world whose stock & trade consists of naked short contracts from corrupted accounts and illicit leveraged strategies emanating from putrid office buildings bearing monikers from the gold cartel.***

****

And early this morning from Bloomberg, the above Willie announcement seems to be true:

(courtesy Bloomberg) 

Deutsche Bank Among Four Said To Be In U.S. Laundering Probe

By Greg Farrell - Aug 18, 2012 4:19 AM ET

By Greg Farrell - Aug 18, 2012 4:19 AM ET

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Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) is among four European banks being investigated by U.S. regulators for alleged money-laundering violations, according to an attorney with knowledge of the matter.

Federal regulators, including the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department and the New York District Attorney’s office are all involved in the probe of Deutsche Bank and three other European banks, said the attorney, who asked not to be identified because the investigations are confidential.

“Deutsche Bank had decided by 2007 to reject any new business with Iran, Syria, Sudan andNorth Korea and to end existing relationships to the extent it was legally possible,” Deutsche Bank spokeswoman Friederika Borgmann said, declining to comment on the U.S. investigation.

The regulators were in advanced stages of an investigation into banking violations at Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) when the superintendent of New York’s banks, Benjamin Lawsky, moved first in that matter with an Aug. 6 order accusing the London-based lender of multiple violations of state banking laws.

Once the federal regulators resolve their own concerns with Standard Chartered, they will proceed against the four European banks they have been investigating, including Deutsche Bank, according to the attorney.

U-TURN TRANSACTIONS

Lawsky’s order accused Standard Chartered of helping Iran launder about $250 billion in violation of federal laws. He accused the bank of a decade of deception, including keeping false records, in handling lucrative wire transfers for Iranian clients. The bank sent them through its New York unit in so- called U-turn transactions with client names omitted to hide their provenance, Lawsky said.

Lawsky reached a settlement with Standard Chartered on Aug. 14, in which the bank agreed to pay $340 million to settle the claims. The New York regulator said that day in a statement that “the parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250 billion.” The $340 million fine will go to Lawsky’s agency, New York’s Department of Financial Services, or DFS, and the state.

As part of the settlement, New York said the bank agreed to install an independent on-site monitor for at least two years who will report directly to regulators. Examiners from the DFS will also be placed at the bank.

‘ENGAGE CONSTRUCTIVELY’

The accord may be the largest ever paid to an individual regulator as part of a money laundering accord. In June, ING Bank NV agreed to pay $619 million to settle similar allegations. That sum was split evenly between a $309.5 million payment to the federal government and an equal sum to the Manhattan District Attorney. A person familiar with the New York probe of Standard Chartered said that Lawsky had sought as much as $700 million to settle his investigation.

Standard Chartered said in an Aug. 14 statement that it “continues to engage constructively with the other relevant U.S. authorities.”

From 2004 through 2007, Standard Chartered was subject to formal action over other regulatory compliance failures related to the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering policies and procedures and regulations of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, the main overseer of Iran transactions.

In a 2004 agreement with regulators, the bank promised to monitor and improve money-laundering controls.

The restrictions of the agreement were lifted in 2007 because the bank provided a “watered-down” report of compliance, according to Lawsky’s order. Bank statements “misled” the department into lifting the restrictions of the 2004 agreement, the order stated.

The investigation of Deutsche Bank was reported earlier by the New York Times.