We were founded in 1974 by three former bullion traders who believed private clients deserved the same standards of custody as the central banks. Five decades later, we are still in the same City building, still answering the same telephone, still doing the work in the same way.
Custody, in our view, is neither a service nor a transaction. It is a discipline that takes generations to refine. The most important things our clients trust us with are not numbers on a screen. They are physical bars in physical vaults, with physical chains of custody that begin the moment a consignment is sealed and end only when it is signed for at its destination.
Our clients include private individuals, family offices, and a small number of institutional partners. We do not advertise. New accounts are introduced through existing relationships and opened in person by an Aurelian officer. Every client is paired with a single point of contact for the life of the account. That officer answers their own telephone.
We have always preferred a smaller list of clients we serve well to a longer list we serve adequately. It is, we think, the only honest way to run a vault.
Every bar held with us is fully allocated and segregated to a named client account. Bars are not pooled, lent, leased, or rehypothecated, full stop. Serial numbers, refinery, weight, and assay are recorded against the client's account at the moment of intake and reconciled monthly.
Our vaults are audited every quarter by Bureau Veritas. The audit reconciles physical inventory against our internal ledger and the client's monthly statement. There have been no discrepancies of consequence in our history. Were one to occur, it would be reported to the client and to the regulator inside forty eight hours.
All holdings are insured at full replacement value through a Lloyd's of London marine and specie syndicate. Cover extends to the vault, to transit by ground, sea and air, and to the period of handover at destination. The client is named as the loss payee on the certificate, not us.
We do not publish a client list, and never have. Our officers are bound by confidentiality undertakings that survive the closure of an account. Holdings are not disclosed to any third party other than as required by lawful order, in which case the client is informed where lawfully permissible.
Our principal office and London vault are at 14 Throgmorton Avenue, London EC2N 2DL. We are two minutes from Bank station, on foot, and visitors are received by appointment only. The clerical team and our senior officers are reachable directly on +44 20 7946 0148, or by email at clients@aurelianreserve.co.uk. The line is answered Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00 GMT.