Swiss gold refiners are beefing up security features on their kilobars to tackle the number of increasingly sophisticated fake-branded products, mostly from China, ending up in bank vaults. In the past three years, fraudulent bars made of real gold worth around $50,000 have been identified, but thousands more are believed to be in circulation, violating regulations preventing money-laundering or the use of conflict materials. Experts said testing purity for the industry standard 99.99% can highlight some fakes, while some banks have responded by restricting purchases of gold from Asian markets.
Swiss gold refiners are beefing up security features on their kilobars to tackle the number of increasingly sophisticated fake-branded products, mostly from China, ending up in bank vaults. In the past three years, fraudulent bars made of real gold worth $50m have been identified, but thousands more are believed to be in circulation, violating regulations preventing money-laundering or the use of conflict materials. Experts said testing purity for the industry standard 99.99% can highlight some fakes, while some banks have responded by restricting purchases of gold from Asian markets.