Largest Dutch bank defaults on physical gold deliveries to customers

"ABN AMRO, the biggest Dutch bank, has sent a letter to its clients stating that they will no longer be able to take physical deliveries of the gold they have bought through ABN. Instead they are offered money at the current market rate for gold. Basically, instead of owning a risk free, physical asset (a gold bar or coin), the bank’s clients now own a monetary claim on ABN AMRO, being exposed to the bank's credit risk. Such action is unfair and resembles a disguised default, even if it is supposedly legal. The bank is taking away the clients’ gold, without their consent, and is replacing the gold with a claim on the bank, forcing the bank’s clients to become the bank’s creditors."

http://www.examiner.com/article/largest-dutch-bank-defaults-on-physical-gold-deliveries-to-customers