Borsa Istanbul plans to increase its gold storage by ten-fold

Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul plans to open a new precious-metals vault next month that will boost storage about 10-fold as the exchange looks to tap more of the global market.The new facility will hold more than 1,600 metric tonnes of gold and other metals, Himmet Karadag, the exchange’s chairman, said in an article published by the World Gold Council. That compares with ICBC Standard Bank’s 2,000-tonne London vault, one of Europe’s largest.Gold demand will also benefit from new rules that allow the metal as an investment in Islamic finance, Karadag said. The bigger vault will allow Borsa Istanbul, which owns the Istanbul Gold Exchange, to strengthen its partnership with the central bank and help Turkey become a gold-storage hub, Karadag said. The nation is the sixth-biggest gold consumer, according to the London-based council.