Deutsche Bank is opening a vault in Singapore that will be able to hold
$9 billion of gold as it seeks to capture the rising demand for bullion
in Asia.

The vault has the capacity to store up to 200 tonnes of gold bullion, the firm said in a statement.

The bank will open the vault at the Singapore FreePort, a
high-security facility for storing precious metals and other
collectibles of the wealthy at the airport.

Last year, Singapore excluded gold for investment from sales tax
liability, which raised interest and demand for storing the yellow
metal.

Gold is currently at a two-year low and prices have fallen nearly 18
per cent this year. Lower prices have prompted a strong physical demand
from price-sensitive countries such as India and China, which together
account for more than 50 per cent of global demand.

“We are seeing considerable interest on the part of our ultra high
net worth clients in this asset class. Through this new platform our
private clients will have a highly regulated and stable jurisdiction in
which to custody these assets, the ability to store their gold holdings
in its physical form, and they will be able to use their physical gold
holdings as collateral against loans," said Mark Smallwood, head of
wealth planning at the bank's asset and wealth management unit in the
Asia-Pacific region.

For the first quarter 2013, Deutsche Bank saw its asset and wealth
management area net revenues increase by 8 per cent to €88 million
($116.3 million), compared to the same period in 2012. Discretionary
portfolio management and fund management net revenues increased by €37
million (8 per cent), while net revenues from advisory and brokerage
services increased by €15 million (8 per cent), driven by higher wealth
and private client activity levels.