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DUBLIN: In a vault under the streets of Dublin, the gold pan belonging to anxious investors grows every day more and more, Britain approaching leaving the EU without agreement.
"They are worried about a significant devaluation of the pound sterling in the event of a difficult Brexit," Seamus Fahy said.
Fahy is co-founder of Merrion Vaults, a gold brokerage facility and secure deposit facility in the center of the Irish capital.
In 2018, while the prospect of a collapse of Britain by the European Union went from an alarmist story to a very real prospect, it witnessed a 70% increase in number of customers from the British province of Northern Ireland.
"Customers take money, physical money, the bank and buy us gold bars to store them, and that's a blanket," Fahy said.
There is no equivalent facility in Northern Ireland.
With the border just an hour away, peace of mind is not long, Britain at risk of separating, critics of the EU calling a "Brexit on the edge of". 39, a cliff ".
Located in the basement of an unpretentious gray office building, Merrion Vaults does not advertise its presence to pbaders-by, who wears only a company placard stating "Merrion Private."
In an elevator, in front of an inhabited security booth and a fingerprint scanner – as well as a very heavy metal door – is a caged vault, sized with 3,000 double-clipped safes.
Their content is known only to customers. But Fahy knows that inside many homes are glittering with gold.
Many customers have spent more than £ 500,000 (560,000 euros) on their precious nest eggs.
The most popular items are bullion and gold coins: nicely polished South African Krugerrands, Canadian Maple Leafs and British British worth around £ 1,100 each.
Their value has increased about 10% in the last six months, according to Fahy's big book.
When the news of the Brexit vote of 2016 was announced, gold jumped, the British pound plummeting to levels never seen since 1985
The result was a historic jump of 22% of gold valued in UK currency.
In December, when British Prime Minister Theresa May withdrew the parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, Fahy also saw a "surge" in demand.
Experts said it was the most worrying indication of a Brexit without an agreement on March 29.
The prospect of the fall of the pound seems to make investors nervous.
"In times of crisis, you always see what is called this" flight to safety ": people turn to US government bonds, gold bullion, Swiss francs, etc.," said Fahy.
The future status of Northern Ireland – the so-called "Irish support" – is at the heart of Brexit's enigma and has added special concerns for the island.
"You often see local events generating local demand," said Alistair Hewitt, market information officer at the World Gold Council.
But Hewitt said the Brexit gold rush may have already peaked in the rest of Britain, with "a resurgence of activity" around the vote itself.
"In the last two years, this has probably been a little bit erased. I think a lot of investors have probably suffered from Brexit fatigue. "
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