Figure of the moth: 150
News Arnulf Hinkel, financial journalist – 01.11.2018
The Xetra-Gold hotline is available from Monday to Friday for all questions concerning the bearer note of Deutsche Börse Commodities – and it is used frequently: at peak times, the number is called up to 150 times a month. This was the case, for example, when in March 2018 the German Federal Fiscal Court ruled that when converted into physical gold, gains from Xetra-Gold securities are not subject to the withholding tax and owners therefore need not adhere to the one-year holding period (which they must, however, keep in mind when planning to sell Xetra-Gold).
Most questions concern the delivery of physical gold
By early October 2018, more than 1000 investors had redeemed their Xetra-Gold securities for physical gold. In most cases, these were private investors, many of whom were informed by the hotline about the costs and the exact procedure. A total of 4.9 tonnes of deposited physical gold were delivered to investors from the vaults of Deutsche Börse. Callers of the Xetra- Gold hotline also often have general questions about the product, which, according to caller feedback, hotline staff provide satisfactory answers to.
Reactions to current events and news articles regarding Xetra-Gold
Many of the calls concern events, especially when they are hosted by Deutsche Börse Commodities itself, such as the "Golden Couch" event series, which Xetra-Gold investors can win VIP tickets for. There are also at times somewhat bizarre requests – such as a recent one from a private investor who wanted to know whether he could exchange his smartphone for Xetra-Gold. An article published on the Xetra-Gold website on gold in technical devices had prompted the idea. However, since the smartphone in question was not a "gold heavyweight" such as the Gold iPhone X Elite with an RRP of the equivalent of €3361, the caller had to look elsewhere to find a buyer for his device.