“By the end of 2015 we had noticed demand had already started to pick up, and 2015 was the second-highest level of transactions or turnover we have on record,” said Mr Eliseo.

Turnover for the first quarter of 2016, he said, has doubled from the turnover recorded in the first quarter of 2015.

“The two main drivers have been lower interest rates, or expectations for lower interest rates, with trustees having their term deposits roll over, and obviously the volatility of the stock market,” said Mr Eliseo.

The market in general, he said, is increasingly questioning the effectiveness of central bank policy, and started to fear some of the unintended consequences of negative interest rates and quantitative easing.

“That sentiment creeping into the market is not good for confidence in financial assets, and has pushed investors towards safe havens. Now traditionally the safe havens were cash and government bonds but with the yields effectively zero or below zero in real terms, more investors are turning towards bullion instead.”

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