Belgium or Switzerland: two models for gold, two philosophies

Two poles, two philosophies

Europe is home to two major poles of the gold trade: Switzerland and Belgium. Both countries play an important role in the refining and circulation of the precious metal, but their models rest on radically different philosophies. On one side, Switzerland concentrates industrial power and the bulk of the world's refining. On the other, Belgium upholds an open and transparent model, directly accessible to private individuals.

This divergence owes nothing to chance, it was built over time. When the London Gold Pool collapsed in 1968, Zurich took over the physical gold market, and the great Swiss banks of the day grew, around their own needs, a refining apparatus built for interbank volumes. Belgium inherited a different tradition, that of smelters and refiners in contact with the public, in the line of a history of refining that reaches back to the first civilisations.

Switzerland: an industrial power geared towards institutions

Switzerland is today the nerve centre of world gold refining. The most frequently cited estimates suggest that half, or even two thirds, of the planet's gold passes through the country each year. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, more cautious, records around 1,600 tonnes refined in 2023 out of a world total in the region of 4,700 tonnes, roughly one third. One point, however, is beyond dispute: installed capacity. The country's four leading refineries, concentrated for the most part in Ticino, together declare a combined capacity of more than 4,000 tonnes per year, and the Federal Council has noted that the country has imported up to 2,400 tonnes of gold in a single year.

This unique concentration gives the country an unavoidable role: most of the bars and coins traded internationally have passed through these facilities, and Bern regulates the sector through one of the strictest pieces of legislation in the world, the federal law on the control of precious metals. But this model is entirely geared towards institutional flows. Swiss refineries do not deal directly with private individuals. When they mention access for savers, they in fact refer them to a network of approved resellers, whose list appears on their official websites. Some even display bar catalogues online, but these are shop windows only: no direct purchase is possible from the refinery itself. Private individuals must go through intermediaries, which adds distribution costs and limits transparency.

The LBMA label: what is it really for?

Swiss bars often carry the "Good Delivery" mention of the LBMA, the London Bullion Market Association. The label is real and serious, but it is important to understand whom it is addressed to. The LBMA accredits refiners for the London interbank market, where bars of 350 to 430 ounces of fine gold circulate, roughly eleven to thirteen kilos, assaying at least 995 thousandths. Three Swiss refineries are, moreover, among the seven technical arbitrators of the label worldwide: the seriousness of the accreditation is beyond doubt. The question lies elsewhere: it is a wholesale standard, designed for the London trading floor.

Yet the private individual who buys a bar has no intention of walking onto the London exchange to negotiate with a state or a central bank. He wants to hold savings: to own a metal that is assayed, weighed and authenticated, and that he can resell without difficulty. For that use, the wholesale label adds nothing beyond what a serious national framework already guarantees. A bar is traded on its fineness, its weight and trust in the brand that cast it. Buyback confirms this: a bar whose gold is fully traced and sourced by the refinery that cast it is taken back more readily than a multi-brand bar, even one carrying the LBMA label.

Belgium: the refinery open to the public

Belgium has chosen a radically different model. Here, some refineries open their doors to private individuals, for selling as well as buying. A customer can go directly to a refinery, present jewellery, coins or bars, watch the purity tests and receive an offer calculated to the nearest gramme, at the day's rate. He can also buy certified bars, sealed and numbered, without going through an intermediary. This rare accessibility removes the extra costs tied to commercial networks: no brokerage fees, no intermediary's commission, direct sale from the producer. The price quoted is the amount paid.

At Gold & Silver Company, this openness goes hand in hand with a requirement the wholesale label does not cover: recycled gold of European origin, traced from raw material to sealed bar, cast and hallmarked in Dottignies (Mouscron) under the assayer's hallmark registered in the Guarantee Register of the Royal Mint of Belgium. And when storage at home is not wanted, the refinery offers on-site storage in secure safe deposit boxes.

Switzerland and Belgium side by side

The table below summarises what each model offers, in concrete terms, to a European saver.

Buying and selling: the real journey, step by step

Beyond the principles, it is the practical steps that separate the two models. Here is what a euro-zone saver actually experiences, first when buying, then when selling.

Buying gold

Selling gold

The point often discovered too late: the customs declaration applies in both directions. Regulation (EU) 2018/1672 applies on entering and on leaving the Union, and gold is expressly covered by it. Anyone setting off to sell three small bars in Geneva crosses the €10,000 threshold before even leaving the motorway.

The euro, the Swiss franc and the border

The other difference lies in the economic environment. In Switzerland, transactions are carried out in Swiss francs, exposing European private individuals to exchange rate movements and bank charges, on purchase as on resale. Belgium, a member of the European Union and of the euro zone, allows simple and secure transactions in the same currency. For a French, German or Italian customer, this avoids any surprise and ensures complete stability.

The border adds a constraint that is often forgotten: Switzerland is outside the European Union. Since Regulation (EU) 2018/1672, anyone entering the Union carrying €10,000 or more in value must declare it at customs, and the text expressly covers gold: coins assaying at least 90%, bars and nuggets from 99.5%. At current rates, around a hundred grammes of fine gold is enough to cross this threshold. A purchase in Switzerland therefore extends into formalities on the way home, whereas a purchase made within the Union requires no external border crossing at all. There remains the tax question specific to each country of residence, which the refinery details for Belgium on its page devoted to gold taxation.

Two visions of the market

Switzerland, focused on global flows, favours industrial power and centralisation. Belgium, more accessible, relies on transparency and proximity to private individuals. One concentrates, the other democratises. As the price of gold has broken records, this distinction takes on its full meaning: Switzerland embodies global industrial strength, while Belgium stands as the European crossroads for private individuals, offering the possibility of buying and selling gold directly at the source, in complete security, without an intermediary. The choice is not a matter of economic patriotism, it is a matter of access: one model was designed for banks, the other for savers.