I am the CEO of HelloGold, a retail financial services platform that enables mass market consumers to access micro savings in investment grade gold through a mobile app (both Android and iOS). The mobile apps allow users to save, borrow and send gold at a minimum transaction threshold of ~USD0.25. HelloGold users have the opportunity to better preserve and diversify their wealth, as well as the ability to access short term financing by collateralizing their gold.

HelloGold makes gold affordable by allowing its users to buy very small weightage per purchase at international spot prices. Customers have direct ownership of the gold they buy. The gold bullion is stored in a vault in Singapore, fully insured against physical loss, and is fully redeemable as physical bars and coins, or simply cash.

Our partner in Malaysia is Aeon and we are about to partner with one of the largest banks in South East Asia. When the agreement is finalised, I will be in a position to disclose the name of the bank.

Before HelloGold, I was CFO of the World Gold Council where I was also part of the senior management team of the world's largest gold fund, GLD, with US$30 billion of gold under management.

the physical bar and coin market is largest segment of the gold investment space - many people simply prefer to hold gold physically under their bed. but it is the worst way of saving using gold.

I wrote an article in the Edge about this point - http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/soli...bullion-traders

the only way you can change people's mindset is by 1) educating them on how best to save using gold 2) informing them on how to identify a reputable bullion dealer who can help them save gold at the best price 3) working with reputable partners that they trust

in my experience, when you can provide all that as I did with ICBC in China and Reliance in India before I started HelloGold - many will choose to save gold through you

Robin

well. that's wonderful - 10 oz of gold is worth about US$12k now. that's the good news.

the bad news is that most reputable dealers will not offer you a price that is close to the actual price of gold unless you bought the gold from them. mainly because they don't know if it is real gold. the only dealers that will offer you a good price will be a dealer that has the equipment to test that the gold is really gold and that they really weight 10 oz. they effectively should assay the gold. A company like Silver Bullion which is headquartered in Singapore but they have an office in KL will have the right equipment to assess your coin

here is an article (one of many on the internet) that will explain in more details the reason why a 10 oz coin is a challenge to sell at the market price - https://www.moneymetals.com/precious-metals...-silver-at-home

Yes. You are right! I was super excited for you that you had 10 oz. the fundamental challenges still remain true. But folks at Silver Bullion should still be able to help

Our prices are live and therefore change 'minute to minute'

You can currently buy RM1 worth of gold for RM180.46 per gram and we charge 2% fee


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I took a snapshot of my account on the HelloGold app to see what the price was

The UOB product requires a minimum purchase of 20 grams and subsequent purchases in multiples of 5 grams. You are also required to maintain a minimum balance of 10 grams in the account otherwise the monthly fee is rm2.12

In contrast HelloGold allows a minimum purchase of RM1 and if there is no minimum of gold that you need to keep in the account.

Assuming you buy 1 gram of gold and hold it for one year and the price of gold is RM180. UOB fee payable would be RM2.12 x 12 months = rm25.44 whereas your annual fee at hellogold will be 2% of RM180 = RM3.60. The UOB fee is nearly RM22 more expensive than the HelloGold product

For those who want Shariah compliant gold, the UOB product isn't Shariah compliant whereas the HelloGold product is

The UOB product is available during banking hours v HelloGold which is available 24/7 on your mobile

Over the new few months, we will also enable customers to use their gold to apply for a Shariah compliant loan with Aeon whereas that facility is not available at UOB

I trust this helps

This post has been edited by robincflee: Apr 29 2017, 12:08 AM

That's correct. HelloGold is focused on providing services for the ordinary Malaysian

This post has been edited by robincflee: Apr 29 2017, 12:54 AM

The price at HelloGold is live - it changes on a minute-by-minute basis

The HelloGold product isn't paper gold -it is fully allocated, fully insured, and audited gold. There is a cost associated with all these features. In contrast, products at banks are typically unallocated, uninsured and unaudited

I hope this helps

I believe that you can only sell back coins at UOB that you bought from them. That is definitely the case for UOB Singapore




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As HelloGold grows its business, we believe we can lower our cost-to-serve. As we are able to do that, we would like to pass these savings onto our customers

At the end of every day, HelloGold publishes a number of statements that show 1) the amount of gold our customers have with us 2) the amount of gold that we have with our vaulting agent according to our records and the corresponding bar numbers 3) a link to our vaulting agent's site that also displays the amount of gold that they hold on our behalf according to their records with the corresponding bar numbers

HelloGold will always have more gold than the total balance held for our customers - this is called over-allocation. We buy in whole 1kg bars and our customers buy in any amount with a minimum of RM1. So the 1st test is whether our records and our vaulting agent's record match in terms of bars held and whether the amount of gold held is greater than the total held on behalf of our customers

HelloGold only has allocated bars so we know specifically which bar belongs to us. The records of bars that we have our vaulting agent should show the exact same bar number.

You can review the customer and bar lists here - https://help.hellogold.com/en/how-do-i-know...stored-is-safe/

Every six months, an independent auditor - Bureau Veritas - will conduct a series of tests that verifies the physical allocation of gold. For more details, pls refer to this - https://help.hellogold.com/en/how-do-i-know...old-is-genuine/

We buy our gold from the refiner through our vaulting agent.

In terms of ownership, our terms and conditions set out that HelloGold acts as your bailee for your gold on your behalf - https://www.hellogold.com/terms.html. Your gold is owned by you.

I hope this provides with you with the necessary clarification

You can definitely buy and sell gold coins at most banks. However you are not usually able to sell coins to any bank other than the one that you bought it from and they reserve the right not to buy it back from you

"UOB accepts gold coin or gold bars originally bought from UOB Singapore or OUB Singapore. Customers are required to produce invoices of purchase satisfactory to UOB.The gold coins or bars must be in good condition (to be solely determined by UOB which decision shall be final). For the gold kilobar, the seal must be intact."

Customer's gold is protected even if HelloGold closes for any reason because the gold is your gold and not ours

https://help.hellogold.com/en/what-is-the-d...allocated-gold/

In fact, the gold that HelloGold holds on behalf of its customers is legally safer than the gold stored by the bank for its customers

I have replied to an earlier post about this

Customer's gold is protected even if HelloGold closes for any reason because the gold is your gold and not ours

https://help.hellogold.com/en/what-is-the-d...allocated-gold/

In fact, the gold that HelloGold holds on behalf of its customers is legally safer than the gold stored by the bank for its customers.

Ownership of your gold in HelloGold is outright.  HelloGold bullion is not subject to a trust deed, and it is not anyone's liability. It is - quite simply - your outright property from the moment you buy it to the moment you sell it. In accepting the HelloGold’s business terms, you have engaged HelloGold as a custodian of your bullion. HelloGold has subcontracted the physical custody of your bullion to vault operators and the trading of gold to its liquidity provider - currently those two services are with the same party.  HelloGold retains responsibility for administration and record keeping.

The gold is your personal property and is treated under Singaporean law as a "bailment". In law, a "bailment" occurs when a person [the bailor - the customer] delivers physical property into the possession of another person [the bailee - HelloGold] on condition that the goods are either returned to the bailor at some later agreed date, or disposed of in accordance with the bailor's instructions. The essence of a bailment is that the bailee [a custodian] has physical custody of goods but they remain the outright property of the bailor. Simply put, the transfer of goods to a custodian does not grant a property right to the custodian, or to its creditors in the event of the custodian's failure. Instead the property remains that of the original owner until it is delivered according to the bailor's instruction.

I hope this addresses your concerns

I have replied to an earlier post about this

Ownership of your gold in HelloGold is outright.  HelloGold bullion is not subject to a trust deed, and it is not anyone's liability. It is - quite simply - your outright property from the moment you buy it to the moment you sell it. In accepting the HelloGold’s business terms, you have engaged HelloGold as a custodian of your bullion. HelloGold has subcontracted the physical custody of your bullion to vault operators and the trading of gold to its liquidity provider - currently those two services are with the same party.  HelloGold retains responsibility for administration and record keeping.

The gold is your personal property and is treated under Singaporean law as a "bailment". In law, a "bailment" occurs when a person [the bailor - the customer] delivers physical property into the possession of another person [the bailee - HelloGold] on condition that the goods are either returned to the bailor at some later agreed date, or disposed of in accordance with the bailor's instructions. The essence of a bailment is that the bailee [a custodian] has physical custody of goods but they remain the outright property of the bailor. Simply put, the transfer of goods to a custodian does not grant a property right to the custodian, or to its creditors in the event of the custodian's failure. Instead the property remains that of the original owner until it is delivered according to the bailor's instruction.

https://help.hellogold.com/en/what-is-the-d...allocated-gold/

If by FIs, you mean banks, then the gold that HelloGold holds on behalf of its customers is legally safer than the gold stored by the bank for its customers. Compared to most banks, HelloGold’s customers own only allocated gold. This obliges HelloGold’s custodian to hold the customers’ gold as their outright property, under a custodial or safe-keeping contract. Under well-established law of bailment (see above), a liquidator must return the formal property to the customer if any of the parties fail. In contrast, when a bank sells unallocated gold, the customer becomes a creditor - i.e. the bank owes you gold which it may not physically have. HelloGold’s gold is fully insured against all risks including loss or theft with cover in excess of RM300 million. In contrast, gold held by banks are not insured by Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia.

Other differences are as follows:
!) HelloGold will be the first shariah compliant gold product in Malaysia that will be fully compliant with the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions’ (AAOIFI) standard on gold-based products. In contrast, most banks in Malaysia do not provide gold products that are compliant with this international standard.
2) HelloGold’s minimum purchase of RM1 is significantly more affordable than most banks which typically require a minimum transaction value of 1g and in multiples of whole grams (c. RM170)
3) HelloGold allows a minimum physical redemption of 1 gram. In contrast, some banks do not allow physical redemption while others only allow physical redemption of a minimum of 100 grams (c.RM17,000)
4) HelloGold is available through a mobile application on a 24/7 basis. Most banks only enable customers to buy and sell gold during office hours. Some operate extended hours but none provide a 24/7 service.
5) With the launch of the gold-backed personal finance product with Aeon Credit, HelloGold will offer customers the ability to use their gold as a form of collateral at market beating rates. No bank currently bundles its gold investment account with a lending product.
6) In 2017, HelloGold will enable its customers to transfer gold between accounts at no cost. No bank in Malaysia provides this facility.

I hope this answers your question

The contractual relationship between HelloGold and the customer means that the gold belongs to the customer and not HelloGold. We simply store it with the custodian. I found this link for you to read so that you can see for yourself - but pls feel free to google for more aspects

https://legaldictionary.net/bailment/

The use of bailment principle is common to many of the largest online gold bullion providers - Goldmoney in the US and BullionVault in the UK

we make money through
1) our annual management which is 2% per annum. we accrue for this on a daily basis and we charge this on a monthly basis
2) our transaction fee which is 2% on the value of gold bought/sold
3) when the Aeon personal finance product is launched, we will share part of the income earned from the provision of the loan (we are still working on the product with our partner, Aeon Credit Services)

that depends on how much gold you plan on buying

if you are buying say RM100, you pay RM2 against spot and RM2 for annual management - that is cheap
if you are buying say RM1k, you pay RM20 and RM20. you might argue that it is cheaper to buy the GLD - but that will cost you RM80 in fees on the way in
if you buy UOB gold, you need to buy a minimum of 20g and if you have less than 10g, you are charged RM2+ per myth - so if you have 1g of golf, you end up paying RM24+ a year in fees
if you buy RM100+k in gold, then the cheapest way of buying gold is through GLD - no one is cheaper and safer

i am afraid that you are wrong

because gold held by the customer belongs to the customer and not hellogold, these are not assets of hellogold that can be seized by the liquidator/administrator to repay creditors

by way of contrast, the gold in most bank investment accounts are a liability from the bank to the customer and therefore the customer is a creditor