Euro Pacific Bank is specially tailored to suit the needs of Peter Schiff’s non-US clientele. The bank is located in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (a tax neutral jurisdiction that offers privacy protection). Clients of Euro Pacific Bank have access to a gold/silver backed bank account (which is part of the Perth Mint depository program).
One could say that the account is a form of gold standard per se; it guarantees the purchasing power of clients’ money. In my opinion, this account is an example of what Peter Schiff said in his book Crash Proof: “If governments don’t want to reinstitute gold standards, private citizens will do it on their own.” Another advantage of the account is when purchasing the precious metals (and with the required minimum purchase of $100) you can buy partial ounces as small as 0.035 ounces (1 gram) seeing as at today’s gold prices the bank’s $500 deposit cannot even buy 1 ounce of gold.
The gold-based debit card that Euro Pacific Bank offers is apparently not designed for short-term holdings of precious metals: buy metals today and then go back into cash tomorrow. It’s designed for long-term holding; the client deposits their cash, transfers it into the metals account, and purchases the metals… but then if he/she needs money on the card then they liquidate the necessary amount of metals (which is then converted into currency) and then load the proceeds onto his/her card.
Watch Peter Schiff talk about his bank:
Exciting Banking Opportunity in St. Vincent
Listener Questions: Gold-based debit card account