BFI Bullion Moves Away from Collective Storage

BFI Bullion has made the decision to discontinue our Collective storage option. We made this decision not only to ensure our offering optimally serves the current needs of precious metals investors, but also to lay the foundation for a sequence of further service upgrades.

With the decision to move away from collective storage, we are underscoring our commitment to what investors value most when it comes to asset protection: clarity and confidence in what they own. Furthermore, this change empowers BFI Bullion’s clients to be first in line to benefit from additional service upgrades and take part in the revolution currently happening in the gold industry.

Collective vs. Segregated Storage: Understanding the Difference

When storing physical precious metals – and I am completely excluding paper, claim, or fractional ownership of gold - investors typically encounter two types of options: “collective” storage and “segregated” storage.

Collective storage involves co-mingling metals of the same type and format. If I bought 10 100gr gold bars from Valcambi, and you bought 10 100gr gold bars from Argor-Heraeus, the 20 bars would be stored together. 10 bars are always there for each of us, but any bar is provided should you request a sale or take delivery. As long as the quality of the metals is equal, this does not pose a big issue.

However, in some cases, the quality in collective storage can vary significantly, leaving investors unsure of what they would actually receive if they sold their metals, picked them up, or had them delivered. In fact, with some collective storage services, physical pick-up isn’t even an option: there are very real instances where investors learned the hard way that their ownership was actually a fractional share of a larger bar, leaving them with no choice but to sell their “bar” or “coins” back to the provider.

This lack of specificity can breed uncertainty. While many companies claim their metals are “physically allocated,” the reality is that collective storage can make it easy to obscure ownership details. For those unfamiliar with the fine print of the contract, this can mean a rude awakening.

Segregated storage, by contrast, offers a starkly different experience. Under this model, your specific bars or coins are physically stored separately from those of other clients. Each item is specifically assigned to you at the moment of purchase or storage. This clear separation delivers full transparency about what you own: if you ever want to pick up your metals, you can do so swiftly and with full confidence in what you will receive. The coins or bars that were “stocked in” for you in the beginning are the same being “stocked out” at the end.

Why The Change?

Historically, BFI Bullion has always been committed to purchasing the highest quality metals of the requested format – including when our collective storage option was selected. In fact, the chosen storage option, has never mattered during a purchase or made any difference when it came to the quality, fineness, liquidity or the purchasing price of the products. So, the above mentioned risks were never an issue with BFI Bullion.

Furthermore - adding an extra layer of security and eliminating all doubts about the availability and quality of the actual products you receive - BFI Bullion has always been contractually prohibited from loaning, hedging, pledging, or otherwise using our client's metals.

However, as the precious metals industry evolves, we recognize that today, investors are looking for truly maximized transparency and peace of mind when it comes to preserving their wealth, which includes having specifically assigned products. And, we want to serve that need without compromise. That is why the shift to exclusively segregated storage was a natural and inevitable one.

A Seamless Transition

For existing clients who previously opted for collective storage, the transition to segregated storage was seamless. Thanks to BFI Bullion’s practice of purchasing only top-tier products, reassigning metals posed no challenge.

Leveraging our long-term partnership with Loomis Switzerland and our significant volume of stored metals (valued at over half a billion US dollars), we were able to have the shift executed swiftly and without problems.

Looking Ahead: More Upgrades to Follow

This, however, is not the end of the road. It’s just the beginning of a sequence of service enhancements that will follow in the coming months and further into 2026. The gold industry is in the midst of a revolution: in collaboration with the World Gold Council, the LBMA, and integral components along the entire global gold supply chain, our sister company within the BFI Capital Group, aXedras, is building a platform that merges cutting-edge technology with our centuries-old, very traditional industry, catapulting us into the 21st century.

Thanks to our close relationship to aXedras, as well as our working intensively and directly with Argor-Heraeus and Valcambi (two of the Big-4 Swiss refineries),we’ll be able to ensure our clients are first in-line to take advantage of new opportunities made possible by this revolution.

While we will always stay committed to our core mission of offering solid wealth protection through physical precious metals, we also want to incorporate new innovations where we believe true value is added to that mission. We will keep you posted on all that is to come!

PS: If you’d like to learn more about the gold industry and how it is transforming, make sure to check out our Fireside Conversation with the CEO of the World Gold Council, David Tait.

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