Turkey Has New Plan to Crack Open Under-the-Mattress Gold Hoard

  • Istanbul refinery CEO says changes made to current regulations
  • Previous attempts to get gold into Turkish system have failed
Photographer: Ismail Ferdous/Bloomberg
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Turkey has a new plan to coax gold to its financial system after previous efforts barely made a dent in a so-called under-the-mattress stash valued at about 40% of gross domestic product.

The Turkish Treasury and the Istanbul Gold Refinery will let selected jewelers collect gold from citizens and deposit it at state banks. A major difference under the new regulations is that customers would be able to withdraw physical gold, according to Aysen Esen, the refiner’s chief executive officer.