ScotiaMocatta

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ScotiaMocatta

logo
legal form Limited
founding 1684
resolution 2019
Reason for dissolution liquidation
Seat London , UKUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom 
Number of employees 160 (2018)
Branch Broker
Website www.ScotiaMocatta.com

ScotiaMocatta was a London- based subsidiary of the Canadian " Scotiabank " specializing in trading in precious metals . Founded in 1684 in London by Moses Mocatta and acquired in 1997 by Scotiabank and renamed "ScotiaMocatta," the company was for a money laundering - Scandal dissolved in January of 2019.

business

"ScotiaMocatta" was one of ten market makers for the London Bullion Market . In addition, the company was one of five banks that took part in the London Gold Fixing . With a company history of over 340 years, it was the only original member of the London Gold and Silver Fixings that was continuously involved in these two “fixings” (official price fixing).

history

The company was founded by the Sephardic Jew Moses Mocatta († 1693), who emigrated from Amsterdam to London around 1670 . There he had established himself as a gold , silver and diamond dealer when he opened an account with the English goldsmith and banker Edward Backwell (approx. 1618–1683) in 1671 .

Moses Mocatta first sent silver to India in 1676 because it was cheaper in London than in Bombay . In return, he received diamonds from India. In 1684 the company "Mocatta" was officially founded and from then on operated as a trader and manufacturer of bars made of precious metal . Mocatta served during the 18th and 19th centuries and a. as precious metal broker for the " Bank of England ", the " Royal Mint " and the " East India Company ". From 1721 to 1840 the company was the exclusive silver broker of the Bank of England. After that it had to share this position with the precious metal dealers “ Sharps & Wilkins ”, “Pixley & Haggard” (since 1872 “ Pixley & Abell ”) and “Samuel Montague & Co.”. The position of "Mocatta & Goldsmid" as the exclusive silver broker of the "East India Company" or, since 1858, of the " India Office " remained until India became independent in 1947.

The company was renamed "Mocatta & Goldsmid" in 1799 after Asher Goldsmid was accepted as a partner in 1787. The company was able to benefit from the discovery of large gold deposits during the California Gold Rush (1848–1854) and during the Australian Gold Rush (1851–1855). In addition, “Mocatta & Goldsmid” co-founded the London Silver Fixing in 1897 and the London Gold Fixing in 1919. In 1913, the company played a key role in the rescue of the “India Specie Bank”, which had got into financial difficulties due to massive speculation on the silver market.

Mocatta & Goldsmid was wholly controlled by the Mocatta and Goldsmid families for 286 years until it was taken over by the British Hambros Bank in 1957 . In 1969 the "Mocatta Metals Corporation" was founded in New York under the direction and participation of the German-born American Henry Jarecki (* 1933) , in which Mocatta & Goldsmid held a 50% stake. In 1973 the British “ Standard Chartered Bank ” acquired “Mocatta & Goldsmid” and its stake in the “Mocatta Metals Corporation” and continued it as “Mocatta Bullion and Base Metals”. The company was a contractual partner of the US brothers and billionaires Nelson Bunker Hunt (1926-2014) and William Herbert Hunt (* 1929), who tried from the mid-1970s to 1980 to bring the international silver market under their control . In the late 1980s, Standard Chartered Bank also bought Henry Jarecki's minority stake in Mocatta Metals Corporation. In 1997 the company finally came into the possession of the Canadian Scotiabank , which renamed it ScotiaMocatta.

In 2018, ScotiaMocatta operated ten offices worldwide with 160 employees.

resolution

On October 18, 2017 reported the British newspaper " Financial Times " that the Scotiabank withdraw from the Edelmatallgeschäft most part and therefore wanted to sell its subsidiary ScotiaMocatta after the latter in a money laundering - scandal was involved. ScotiaMocatta was one of the largest creditors of the US precious metals Affinerie "Elemetal" in Dallas , who was accused by US authorities, through its subsidiary "NTR Metals" in Florida illegally funded and smuggled gold from Latin America to the value of 3.6 billion Having imported US dollars .

After no buyer could be found for ScotiaMocatta, Scotiabank announced in early May 2018 that it would liquidate its London subsidiary ScotiaMocatta, withdraw from various areas of the gold trade and integrate the remaining precious metals business into its Canada-based department for general commodities trading. This decision had been implemented by January 2019 and the name Mocatta had disappeared after 348 years in the precious metal trade.

At the end of April 2020, it was announced that Scotiabank would also withdraw from the remaining metal trading, including precious metals, and wind up this line of business by early 2021.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Scotiabank Drops 348-Year-Old Mocatta Name in Metals Unit Revamp , BellMedia. 19th January 2019. 
  2. ^ Paul H. Emden: "Jews of Britain. A Series of Biographies, ”Sampson, Low, Marston & Co., London 1944, DNB 1004941854, p.88
  3. ^ A b Exclusive: Scotiabank reworks ScotiaMocatta metals after failed sale - sources , Reuters. 2nd May 2018. 
  4. ↑ Scotiabank looks to sell gold trading unit after money laundering scandal , THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD. October 18, 2017. "workers at NTR Metals allegedly" knowingly conspired to purchase gold with the intent to promote the carrying on of organized criminal activity, including illegal gold mining, gold smuggling and the entry of goods into the US by false means and statements to US Customs, and narcotics trafficking "" 
  5. ^ "Scotiabank to close its metals business: sources" in the online edition of the Financial Post from April 28, 2020

literature

  • Paul Herman Emden: "Jews of Britain: A Series of Biographies". Sampson Low, Marston & Company Ltd., London 1944
  • Timothy Green: "Precious Heritage: Three hundred years of Mocatta and Goldsmid", Rosendale Press, London 1984, ISBN 0950918202

Web links