Prince Charles’ Bank of England tour: Prince of Wales introduced to gold bars worth $168 billion

The Bank of England welcomed a royal visitor on Wednesday as Prince Charles met Governor Mark Carney and toured the Bank's museum at the Threadneedle Street office. He was shown the gold vaults that had 400,000 gold bars worth £100 billion (AU$168 billion).

Prince Charles toured the Bank of England to meet Carney and celebrate the mission of the bank to maintain monetary and financial stability and hence, promote the good of the people. The tour was planned after Carney visited the Prince of Wales at Clarence House in February and extended a personal invitation to visit the bank.

Carney welcomed the heir of the British throne to his historic office. As both of them sat down with a group of deputies for a private briefing, the governor joked, “A tremendous amount of mistakes have been made at this table.” The briefing with the staff included issues such as environmental impact, price inflation, cyber security and the bank’s system (that ensure settlement of high-value payments in real time) among others.

Prince Charles was given a private viewing of gold vaults that provide safekeeping for gold reserves of the nation as well as overseas central banks. The 400,000 bars (each weighing 13kg) are worth more than £100 billion (AU$168 billion). Reportedly, Prince Charles seemed thoroughly impressed looking at the vastness of these vaults.

Prince Charles had last visited the bank in 2002. Last year, there was a huge brawl between the Bank of England and some politicians over the Brexit. Carney was also critised for being too political. Simultaneously, Prince Charles was leveled with the same accusation.