Argentine court urges Central Bank to hand over data on gold sent abroad

A federal court has ordered the Argentine Central Bank to hand over information regarding the location of the gold bars it allegedly shipped abroad in June last year.  The court, however, also offered the bank a way out, saying that it should thoroughly explain its main argument for denying the request if it intends to stand by that position. According to bank authorities, handing out the data “poses a threat to the financial or banking system or could harm the interests of the Central Bank.” The information requests stem from a presentation filed by banking workers union La Bancaria immediately after Economy Minister Luis Caputo confirmed that the Central Bank had sent gold bars overseas.  Although there has been no official confirmation of where it was sent, some media outlets reported that the gold was moved to London for a repo. La Bancaria demanded to know if any gold bars had been shipped abroad. In the case that they had been, they requested to know the amount, currency, and commercial characteristics of the deal.  So far, the Central Bank has refused to provide the information. New developments The case took a turn on Monday when the Federal Administrative Litigation Chamber, led by judges Guillermo Treacy and Pablo Gallegos Fedriani, repealed a ruling from a lower court that had previously denied the workers’ union request.  The chamber based its decision on the fact that the Central Bank’s denial lacked specific justification. The ruling went on to say that the entity answered “generically, alleging confidentiality or secrecy, or a hypothetical danger to the banking or financial system,” in a way that is incompatible with “the principles of publicity, maximum disclosure, and transparency.”  The judges added that such an answer prevented the court from verifying whether the “refusal is legitimate or reasonable.” The workers’ union is not the only interested party in finding out where the gold is. Earlier this year, New York Judge Loretta Preska ordered Argentina to hand over information on its gold reserves in response to a request filed by hedge fund Burford Capital in October. The discovery order is part of a US$16.1 billion lawsuit the country won against it in 2023 for the expropriation of the energy company YPF. Argentina’s assets are being probed for potential seizure by the Southern District Court of New York to partly pay for the lawsuit.A source in the Central Bank told the Herald that Monday’s ruling is not final and that the monetary authority could simply “detail the reasons for denying access to information in relation to each of the points requested.”