1. The World Economic Forum hosts an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
2. Swiss National Bank faces Referendum over Gold Sales - 3/21/2013
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) could be prevented from selling its gold, after the Swiss People's Party (SVP) secured enough signatories for its proposals to trigger a national referendum on the matter.
The proposals – dubbed the ‘gold initiative' – seek to prohibit the central bank from selling gold, force it to hold at least 20% of its total assets in gold and ensure all bullion holdings are stored physically in Switzerland.
Members of the SVP, the largest party in the Swiss National Council, yesterday released a statement revealing they had accumulated 105,279 signatures in support of their proposal, enough to trigger a public referendum.
A spokesperson for the SNB said the central bank has "considerable concerns with regard to the monetary policy implications of the demands in the initiative".The article goes on to explain that the Swiss would like their Central Bank to reverse from selling to buying, bringing its balance sheet weighting up to 20% from the current 10%.
update: On 3/24/2013 zerohedge posted a letter from ABN AMRO changing the handling and delivery of gold settled contracts.
