Britain’s 1 100-year-old Royal Mint said on Monday it will launch an exchange-traded product this week backed by physical gold held in its vault in Wales, which will trade on the London Stock Exchange.
Gold exchange-traded products, which issue securities backed by metal they buy and store on behalf of investors, have become big business since the first was launched in the early 2000s.
They now hold almost 3 000 t of gold worldwide, worth around $140-billion at current prices, according to the World Gold Council.