Rich people are worried and seek ancient security

A few blocks from Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, 46 Park Lane resembles a private club with wooden panel walls and an adorned chimney dating from the Victorian era of Great Britain.

But under the stairs is one of the safest rooms in London.Built by IBV International Vaults, the strength with steel walls is scheduled to open next month and will serve billionaires looking for a place to hide their most precious possessions.

"We receive calls every week about a place available for 2.5 million pounds [$ 3.2 million] per year," said Sean Hoey, managing director of IBV London, referring to a space the size of an apartment.The firm, which also has 550 security boxes in the place and space for about 450 more, bets on London's reputation as a "safe refuge", even with Brexit.

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This will be the sixth location of IBV, and is not the only one of those consulting firms that offer an answer for the rich.From London to Switzerland and parts of the US.UU, the rich seek to store precious, effective and cryptocurrency metals.

For some, it is the threat of a global recession, others avoid bank deposits since negative interest rates force lenders to charge for keeping effective, many others are concerned about natural disasters.

The titan of coverage funds Ray Dalio captured anxiety last month when he warned that the global economy is threatened by an explosive mixture of ineffective monetary policy, a growing wealth gap and climate change.According to a UBS Global Wealth Management customer survey, most rich investors are accumulating cash in anticipation of a strong market drop before the end of next year.

"We have seen an extraordinary demand for safety boxes since we started offering them in 2015, and that demand has really increased since the end of summer," said Ludwig Karl, Swiss Gold Safe Ltd spokesman., which operates high security in alpine vaults."Most people say they are planning difficult economic circumstances".

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It is a similar story for Sincona Trading AG, a precious metal distributor with more than 1.000 safety boxes for rent in Zurich, Switzerland.He had dozens of empty boxes three years ago, but now he is renting around five per day, said Benoit Schoeni, managing director.

"There has been an extreme demand," he said."It won't spend much time until we are full".

Safety boxes can vary from a few centimeters tall to the size of a kitchen cabinet.Another option is free ports: warehouses in tax free areas, such as Singapore, Geneva and Delaware, preferred to store art, but that generally limit the amount of time that the pieces can be stored.

According to some estimates, there are more than 25 million security boxes only in the US.UU and can be used from the mundane to the exotic.

A private collector had the Andes crown, made with 5.3 pounds of gold and more than 400 emeralds, in a Citibank box before sale four years ago to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Even so, for many banks, they are no longer a central offer.

The amount of space they require is a deterrent.That is especially the case in London, home to the population of the world's largest rich individuals, according to the Knight Frank real estate corridor.In the city center, few places have safe storage facilities as IBV in Park Lane, where customers can also buy gold coins from around the world.

In the United States, security boxes have also fallen out of favor because banks close branches and choose not to install them in new other. La demanda ha disminuido en los últimos años, según JPMorgan Chase & Co.AND BANK OF AMERICA CORP., the two largest lenders in the country.

"Much of the decrease can be attributed to customers who choose to store online documents, especially younger customers," said Don Vercchialello, a spokesman for the Bank of America.

But it has revived interest since the fears of climate disasters and forest fires have led more people to ensure their value objects, said Jerry Pluard, founder of Safe Deposit Box Insurance Coverage.The boxes are also an option for cannabis companies that are excluded from the US banking system.UU because marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, he said.

Business

Some Swiss companies also see a demand promoted by the policy of the Central Bank.Negative interest rates have left Swiss banks trapped among the possibility of losing money to retain customer deposits and impose rates that could scare away them.

UBS Group AG, the world's largest heritage administrator, and his rival Credit Suisse Group AG announced plans this year to expand the measures to collect rich customers for maintaining excess cash.For some, these additional costs have made the security box a viable alternative.A spokeswoman for the Swiss Bank of UBS, who operates almost 250.000 safety boxes throughout the country, said that customer demand has decreased in recent years.

"The cost of cash storage is cheaper than negative interest rates," Karl of Swiss Gold Safe said.The firm offers six boxes sizes, with the largest rent per 4.039 Swiss francs [$ 4.079] a year."Cash storage has become a solid business for us".

Some bankers said that the desire for security boxes does not make much sense.To avoid charges in their accounts, the rich can distribute their cash in several banks.Customers also need to buy insurance in case something happens to money, such as a fire.Safety box companies sometimes subsidize that additional cost, with IBV London offering 100.000 pounds of complementary insurance for each container hired.

The proliferation of non -banking entities that provide security boxes has led some Swiss legislators to wonder if they are providing a safe refuge for bad actions, such as money laundering, and point out that they do not face the same level of scrutiny and regulatory supervision thatTraditional banks.

The storage of large cash sums in safety boxes requires a task list.These include organizing money transport and maintaining detailed records of their location to avoid raising suspicions about money laundering if the cash ever returns to a bank account.In addition, the strict breach of the protocols of a safe deposit company can result in rejection as a client.

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"The even greater problem is to return the cash to his account," said Felix Brill, VP Bank investment director, based in Liechtenstein, which manages about $ 50 billion in assets and offers some security boxes.Even so, “nobody likes to pay negative interest rates.All look for alternatives ".

Safety boxes are not always fault -proof.

In 2015, thieves pierced the wall of an underground vault in the Diamond District Hatton Garden in London, obtaining $ 20 million in jewels. Un año antes, un cliente de una sucursal de Wells Fargo & Co.In highland park, n.J., lost millions of dollars in rare watches that had been stored in a security box, reported the New York Times in July.

Ironically, robberies and scandals can boost other companies that offer safety boxes as the rich look for even safer places to hide their precious possessions.

Christopher Barrow, executive director of Metropolitan Safe Deposits, based in London, said his company spent more than $ 3 million to build an installation that opened this year in southwest London.

"Hatton Garden was a classic case," said Barrow, whose signature has more than 15.000 safety boxes only in downtown London."There was a leap in relation to quality after that case".

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