1. S.T.A.R. Storage program - developed and exclusively run by Silver Bullion Pte Ltd - that securely stores bullion in the form of highly standardized uniquely identified parcels containing, typically, 500 troy ounces (about 15.55 kg) of silver or 10 troy ounces (311 grams) of gold, platinum, palladium or EV metals parcels which are cobalt or nickel. Once stored and authenticated under S.T.A.R. these parcels can be either sold to Silver Bullion or taken delivery of via the S.T.A.R. Storage online interface.
2. Safe Deposit Boxes (The Safe House) - Provides a Do It Yourself (DIY) storage solution using custom designed Safe Deposit Boxes and processes designed to maximize security and privacy. A box can be packed remotely upon provisioning. Once sealed, the customer is required to be physically present at The Safe House to access the box. Full liability at low cost is available.
Go to the S.T.A.R Storage page and register for a STAR Storage account. It has to be a minimum of 18 years old to open a personal account
Click here to download the pdf guide with screenshots on how to create a S.T.A.R Storage account.
How to buy precious metals on Silver Bullion's website for S.T.A.R. Storage?
There are 2 ways in which you can purchase precious metals for S.T.A.R. Storage as explained below.
Method 1. Fund account first and place an order when you want to buy
You can send us funds first following the payment details in the Payment Options page https://www.silverbullion.com.sg/AboutPayments.aspx
Once we have received your funds, we will inform you. When you think the price is right, you can submit an order by looking for the item which you want to buy, click on the “Store in our vault” button and checkout your shopping cart to lock in the price.
Method 2. Submit an order to buy and send us the full payment within 2 business days.
When you want to buy, select the item, click on the “Store in our vault” button and checkout your shopping cart to lock in the price. After that, you will need to send us the full payment within 2 business days following the payment details above.
*Do note that for purchases above USD $500,000, please send us the funds first before placing an order.
You will need to purchase at least a parcel which for different metals, the minimum amount required to form a parcel will vary from metal to metal.
For example, you just need to buy 1 X LBMA Silver Good Delivery Bar of 1000 oz in order to store or a monster box of 500 Canadian Maple Leaf coins to store.
Depending on the item that you are buying, kindly refer to our online shop and look under the ‘Store in our vault’ option and the minimum amount to purchase will be shown.
For EV metals, you can purchase them in drums for storage.
Go to the Sellback page and select the currency you want to sellback in, select the parcels that you want to sell and click submit.
The sellback request will be processed within two to five business days.
You will need to decide on the type of account to apply to store the precious metals or EV metals – personal, joint, company or trust.
Personal Account - Account for a single individual.
Joint Account - Joint accounts are registered in the names of two individuals under joint tenancy with rights of survivorship.
Joint Account with a Minor - Joint accounts are registered in the names of two individuals, with one being under 18 years of age. This type of account is held under joint tenancy with rights of survivorship.
Company Account - Company account holders include Corporations or IRA LLCs. These accounts allow one or two company representatives who will be authorized to act on behalf of the company.
Trust Account - This account has a trust as the account holder. These type of accounts also specify one or two trustees who are individuals that are authorized to act on behalf of the trust.
Retirement Account - An account registered in the name of a retirement investment vehicle held by the client such as IRA LLCs, Self-Directed IRAs, superannuation, etc.
Click on this link to view the guide on how to open a S.T.A.R. Storage account.
Yes. You can set up Two-factor Authentication (2FA) on your S.T.A.R. Storage account - using SMS or Time-based One-time Passwords (TOTP) using an authenticator app.
To begin setting up 2FA on your account, go to your account's User Profile and click 'Enable' in the Two-factor Authentication section. With a verified S.T.A.R. Storage account and the correct mobile number registered with us, click the 'Verify' button next to your mobile number on the User Profile page to begin the SMS verification process.
1) 2FA by SMS
Click the 'By SMS' button at the Two-factor Authentication section of the User Profile.
2) 2FA by an authenticator app
This is a more secure 2FA option than SMS. It requires downloading a third-party authenticator app that generates a time-based one-time password (TOTP). This password is local to your mobile phone and does not communicate with the outside world. It is also refreshed after some seconds have passed to ensure that generated passwords are unique.
You can use any preferred authenticator app. If you are setting up TOTP 2FA for the first time, you can consider the following to begin with:
1) Google authenticator (commonly used)
2) Authy (if you want the TOTP codes to sync between devices)
3) andOTP (if you prefer open source)
With the authenticator app downloaded onto your mobile phone, click the 'Use Auth App' button on the Two-factor Authentication section in your account's User Profile. A QR code will be generated on the next page. Scanning this QR code with your authenticator app will result in a password generated by the app. Enter this code in the field at step 2 on the page with the QR code and click the 'Enable' button.
On the next page, please enter the codes sent to the phone number and email registered in your S.T.A.R. Storage account in the 2 respective fields. Then click 'Verify'.
TOTP 2FA is now set up on your account. You will be prompted to enter the code from your authenticator app whenever you login to your account or perform transactions that require this further verification step.
S.T.A.R. stands for Secure, Tax Free, Allocated and Reserved.
Yes. If you already have a S.T.A.R. account, you can login to create new accounts (e.g. joint, company, trust, retirement accounts) that will be automatically linked. You can then access these accounts using one username and password pair and switch between accounts easily.
Please follow these steps:
1) Login to your S.T.A.R. account.
2) Click on your username at the top right corner of the website.
3) Click on 'Create new account' in the dropdown menu. Follow the subsequent steps to create a new account. This account will be linked to your existing S.T.A.R. account.
You can change your personal details from your Edit Profile page if your S.T.A.R. Storage account is not verified yet.
After your S.T.A.R. Storage account is approved, you will be able to change only your password in the Edit Profile page. For any changes in personal details will require a Change Request and you would have to contact us, and we will send you the Change Request form.
As per our policy to safeguard customer holdings, if you wish to update your phone number, e-mail address, bank account number or bitcoin wallet address, kindly fill in your new details on the Change Request form and one of our Customer Service team members will be in touch with you via a video verification call. After submitting the Change Request Form, kindly let us know when you would be available to conduct the video call. We are contactable 7:00 am to 2:00 am Mondays to Fridays, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm on Saturdays, local time except during Singapore public holidays.
In compliance with anti-money laundering policies (including possible tax evasion schemes), Silver Bullion will not allow the conversion/retitling of a personal account to a trust account/company account and vice versa.
However, we do allow for the transfer of parcels between a personal/joint account to a trust account and vice versa with the condition showing us that you directly own the trust with supporting documents. Do note that this will be subject to approval. For each parcel transfer, it will cost SGD 25 per parcel.
You can view our the fees from the Storage Fees page
Storage charges start on the date bullion ownership is transferred in your name and the invoice is closed (Invoice Date). You will not be charged while your order is being processed or if it is a pre-order. Upon sale or delivery of parcels any unused or overdue storage months will be refunded or deducted on a daily pro-rated basis as part of the Purchase Order or Delivery Note.
Notes: Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a tax that is paid on goods or services consumed domestically, including imports.
In other countries, GST is known as the Value-Added Tax or VAT.
The precious metals which we sell are tax-free meaning that they are free of GST.
However, the storage fees charged include the GST that is paid to the Singapore government.
The S.T.A.R. Storage system adds or subtracts your storage balance for each parcel when you sell or take delivery of your bullion. For example, if you have SGD 130 in unused storage left for a given parcel and you sell it, we will add SGD 130 to the buyback rate of the metals, which we wire to your bank account. The S.T.A.R. Storage interface makes this very transparent by detailing these amounts.
Payments using Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay issued credit/debit cards are accepted for both SGD and USD orders and are processed through our payment partner – Stripe. This payment option is limited to 20,000 SGD payments (or its USD equivalent) and involves an additional credit card transaction fee.
For payment using a credit/debit card (SGD & USD Only), please go to your Order Balance page and click on the "Pay Balance" button.
After that, key in your details and proceed. When you are done, you will see a "Payment Successful" page.
Due to the high risk of fraud, credit/debit card orders exceeding 5,000 SGD (or its USD equivalent) may require additional manual review by our team. As an additional precaution for local orders (local pick-up), we may also require you to present the credit card used to pay for the order.
We reserve the right to refuse any credit/debit card orders deemed questionable or of significant risk to Silver Bullion.
You can visit the Storage Extension page to extend your storage to the period that you want.
You can visit the Delivery page to withdraw your bullion parcels.
*Do note that EV metals are currently not allowed to be taken delivery of as of this moment. Kindly contact us for more details.
Standard withdrawal charges apply – see Schedule of Charges.
Yes. It is also possible to have bulk shipments (for example 5,000 troy ounces of silver or more) delivered to selected major airports such as Hong Kong, Bangkok or Tokyo. We plan to expand the delivery options outside of Singapore in the future. Kindly contact us for more details.
Yes, this is possible. The normal withdrawal process would have to be initiated from Silver Bullion. That is, the customer cannot interact directly with The Safe House vault operator personnel.
Do take note that withdrawal charges of SGD 25 per bullion parcel applies. EV metals are currently not allowed to be taken delivery of as of this moment. Kindly contact us for more details.
The S.T.A.R. Storage system allows for the metals to be delivered to the address on record in Singapore through secured transport or we can have the bullion delivered to our offices/depository within Millenia Walk . In the latter case, you would have to pick the metals up from our office. Please note that we require you to sign for the bullion delivery. If you cannot be present we require a written authorization letter before delivery, specifying the recipient who will receive the metals on your behalf. Do note that EV metals are currently not allowed for delivery at this current moment. Kindly contact us for more details.
You can visit our Transfer-In page for more information or you can view the guide below.
Sign up for a S.T.A.R. Storage profile with us. We will need to verify your profile – along with the signed form and the required documents - before you can initiate the transferring the bullion.
We would need to know the:
1. Quantity
2. Size (oz or gram)
3. Brand
4. Coin or Bar
The reason is we only store certain bullion in specific quantities for STAR Storage. Do note that there will be transfer-in charges as explained in the Transfer-in page https://www.silverbullion.com.sg/StorageTransfer.aspx
Due to the strict regulations in certain countries, if you wish to ship bullion to Singapore, you will need to take note of the following below:
1. Residential address is not allowed to ship precious metals overseas
2. An individual cannot ship precious metals overseas
3. Only a company with a commercial address can ship the bullion overseas
If you wish to ship the precious metals yourself, you will need to have a company and the pickup address must be a commercial address in order to ship the precious metals overseas.
Non-LBMA accredited refiners
Please send us the following information once the bullion has been shipped.
1) Shipping invoice
2) Airway Bill number
We will need this information to apply for the necessary permit to receive and store the gold in The Safe House's tax-free zone.
Please send the bullion to the following address:
The Safe House SG Pte Ltd
6 Changi South Street 3, #03-01
Singapore 486128
Contact person(s): Aaron Tan/Teejay Sim
Contact number: +65 6448 8638
For more inquiries, kindly contact us at [email protected]
You are responsible in ensuring the metals is sent to our vault at The Safe House. We can provide contacts among various logistics providers who can arrange for shipment of your bullion, however you will have to contact them directly. Domestic deliveries (movement from point A to point B within Singapore) can be arranged through us with specialized forwarders who deal with metals, such as Certis Cisco or Ferrari Logistics.
We accept many types of bullion, provided they are IPM (investment precious metals as defined by the Singapore Government) and sent in multiples as specified in our program.
While we do not store half ounce gold coins, we can convert those to 1 ounce gold coins for storage (ultimately 10 ounces of gold are required for you to store per parcel).
Please click here for more information.
The alternative is to rent a safe deposit box via www.thesafehouse.sg
Yes, you may. Please submit an order as soon as you have confirmed with your shipper that your bullion is on the way to our office.
In order to store with us for transfer-in metals, you will need to prepay a minimum of 6 months. Do take note that we return any unused prepaid storage, in case of your selling back metals to us.
Depending on the type of metals and the volume shipped to us, we will take approximately two to five business days to ‘DUX test’ the bullion and pack them. Transfers concerning larger volumes might take more than one week to process.
By default, we will weigh each tube containing silver coins. We will then conduct an ultrasound test on a sample batch from these coins. At our discretion, we will test more coins, or conduct an X-ray fluorescence test on the initial batch of coins.
Gold bullion are inspected more thoroughly.
Yes, you can. To find out more about DUX Bullion Testing and the charges involved, please visit this page: https://www.silverbullion.com.sg/DUX
Yes. Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) can be activated to secure your Silver Bullion account beyond a username and password. You can receive a verification code either by SMS on your mobile device or via an authenticator app to be entered at our website as a second layer of security before your account can be accessed. Please follow the steps in this page to enable 2FA.
Please send us a message and we will send you the Change Request form. Kindly fill up the form, sign it and send it back to us. Once we have the form, we will conduct a videocall with you to ensure that the change is being actually requested by yourself and no one else.
Any S.T.A.R. Storage transaction such as a buy or sell order or modifying personal information will trigger a notification sent to your email. Should you receive such a notification but you have not initiated it, change your password and contact us immediately. Every buy or sell order is reviewed by a Silver Bullion officer before an order confirmation is sent out or, depending on the situation, we will void the order.
Please note that the system is intentionally designed so that there is very little for a potential hacker to gain even if they were able to access your account.
We will be adding 2FA verification once it has been finished in a few months time.
The S.T.A.R. Storage system is designed to allow funds to be transferred back only into your own linked bank account. Therefore, the worst case scenario would entail funds being returned to your bank account. Furthermore, each transaction is reviewed by a Silver Bullion officer and for some transactions two officers. We might contact you to confirm a transaction or changes made to your S.T.A.R. Storage profile to make sure that the changes were as per your request.
For any change in sensitive data like phone number, email address, linked bank account and BTC address will require a change request with a video verification call to ensure that the owner of the account is initiating the change in sensitive data.
Once you log into your Silver Bullion profile, your connection is encrypted using industry standard encryption (denoted by “https” in the URL) certificates similar to those used by banks to reinforce connection privacy and security.
There are three independent entities: vault operators, LBMA-approved inspectors, and Financial Auditors that confirm that the parcel is stored at the specified facility. We also provide you photograph - which you can download as a report from our website - of each stored bullion parcel.
1 Vault Operator(s) perform physical inspections and release parcel inventory reports which are checked against the Parcel Ownership list at least two times per week. Both the S.T.A.R. Parcel Ownership List and vault operators' parcel list are posted online and can be downloaded by S.T.A.R. Bullion Storage customers.
2 London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) approved bullion auditors will perform an independent audit of all parcels, at least once every three months. Silver Bullion has contracted Bureau Veritas (formerly Inspectorate), an LBMA approved inspection company with over 6,000 employees worldwide - 200 of them are stationed in Singapore - to perform these audits and provide a certificate which can be downloaded through your S.T.A.R. Storage Interface online.
3 Foo Kon Tan LLP (member of HLB International), our auditors, randomly check the physical presence of the parcels with the vault operator, independently check bank statements and cashflows with the banks and review parcel ownership records as evidenced by tax invoices, purchase orders and delivery orders to their respective monetary receipts and disbursements.
The ownership records are maintained by Silver Bullion Pte Ltd, made available to you online in a very transparent manner and controlled by Independent Accountants and Financial Auditors
1 Independent Approved Accountants review and control the parcel ownership records and match these to Tax Invoices, Purchase Orders and Delivery Orders to their respective monetary receipts and disbursements. In Singapore a Tax Invoice falsification is a criminal, not civil, matter so this process is taken very seriously by all parties.
2 Foo Kon Tan LLP (member of HLB International) independently check the physical presence of the parcels with the Vault Operator(s), independently check bank statements and cash flows with the Banks and review parcel ownership records as evidenced by tax invoices, purchase orders and delivery orders to their respective monetary receipts and disbursements.
Your profile information is accessible only by a small team of Silver Bullion officers in Singapore and the Singapore financial auditors. None of these information are released to third parties unless required by law.
There is no legal obligation on Silver Bullion to any foreign government, including any foreign tax authority, regulator or any foreign public authority to provide information on any customers or any transactions performed under the S.T.A.R. Storage Agreement.
From a regulatory standpoint in Singapore, bullion kept through S.T.A.R. Bullion Storage is not considered a financial product but a physical good and does not fall under the reporting requirements typical for financial products. Vault operators and bullion auditors process information with the anonymous S.T.A.R. Owner ID.
Sealed S.T.A.R. Bullion parcels containing silver bullion coins are held in mint sealed “monster boxes”. These boxes come either directly from the mints or through two of the largest North American bullion distributors. In either case, the origin of the coins can be traced back to the mint. Furthermore, the boxes will be weighed by the Vault Operator on arrival which is an implied density test. X-rays of the shipment will also be done as a security precaution upon entering the storage facility.
Sealed S.T.A.R. Storage Parcels containing silver bullion bars are normally 100 troy ounce silver bars grouped in five (500 ounces in total). These bars come from the foundries in double sealed bullion bags and can be traced back to the foundry. In rare cases, if bars are not coming directly from the mint they would have undergone an assay by the primary distributor. Upon arrival, the bars are weighed and repackaged in groups of five (5) into sealed, tamper proof, transparent parcel bags by at least two vault operator officers under CCTV surveillance.
Thus genuinity is addressed by:
• Source - we only market the most liquid and established brand name bullion.
• Traceability - the bullion is arriving either directly from the mint / foundry or in rare cases, the bullion was bought back by dealers and re-assayed by our supplier.
• Weight check and thus implicit density check upon arrival.
• Audit by London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) approved auditors.
• We also do optional DUX Tests. (DUX Testing is mandatory for all transferred in bullion).
Furthermore, our primary suppliers will accept S.T.A.R. Storage bullion without the usual need for an assay.
Yes, you can. Intrinsically, high security vaults are not designed to be accessible to the public. Security precautions make it difficult to allow vault visits without appointment.
The Safe House is a little more accessible and it is possible for Silver Bullion to organize a visit to the facility and the parcels stored there. Please note that an appointment date and time would have to be fixed in advance. The vault operators will also require a background check on all visitors before the visit is approved.
A commercial invoice functions like a certificate in that it legally documents the transfer of ownership to the specified buyer. An invoice is a legal document which is created by Silver Bullion officers, controlled by accountants, inspected by financial auditors and regulated by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).
Falsifying a commercial invoice is a criminal offense in Singapore, not just a civil offense. Although an invoice might not sound glamorous, this document offers much more protection than a loosely defined “certificate”.
The S.T.A.R. Storage system offers more layers of protection than a bearer based certificate system, which is intrinsically much more susceptible to fraud as it relies on a single document issued by a single institution instead of having the transparency and multiple party control mechanism of the S.T.A.R. Storage system.
The S.T.A.R. Storage system was designed to minimize manual data entry which typically is the primary source of potential errors. Furthermore, a well designed data structure, sets of redundancies and cross checks make this system robust and transparent. More importantly, the system is designed to have a paper backup of all transactions so that we can verify orders or holdings independently from the IT system if necessary.
Tehnical crosschecks: S.T.A.R. Storage uses two separate inventory systems that crosscheck each other. Should an inconsistency occur in one it would be detected by the other system. This design greatly increases transparency which in turn makes the system more reliable. Other technical functions and design features ensure that the risk of errors occuring is minimized.
Non-technical and Vault Operator redundancies: S.T.A.R. parcel ownership lists data are backed up by vault operator inventory lists and all S.T.A.R. transactions are based on invoices and purchase orders. These documents are printed out and archived when issued as part of accounting procedures and auditing requirements.
Customers can view and crosscheck all these documents as well so the system’s transparency implicitly ensures a very high level of accuracy and fast response should any discrepancies occur.
The founder of the company -- Mr Gregor Gregersen -- has been in business software design and project management since 1997 with the majority of this time working for MNCs and banks. Mr. Gregersen has been the architect and he has been developing software in the areas of business intelligence, banking (including derivative pricing), compliance and commissioning systems. His previous occupation before working full time with Silver Bullion Pte Ltd was that of Data Architect for a major European bank.
Designing redundant and transparent systems that remain consistent over time is a key requirement in this industry. We have developed S.T.A.R. Bullion Storage and are able to offer a reliable service as we understand how to build such systems.
We will require a court issued order declaring that an individual is now of unsound mind, in a vegatative state or has no control of his or her mental faculties. Once this is furnished, we can act accordingly to convert the account to an individual account.
When you enable the Transfer on Death instruction in your Personal Account, you are taking a proactive step to simplify the asset distribution process for your beneficiaries. This is achieved by establishing a straightforward mechanism to ensure that the assets within your Silver Bullion Account can be easily converted into cash and transferred to your Linked Bank Account upon notification of your passing. Consequently, this ensures that your assets with Silver Bullion become readily accessible to your estate administrator or executor for distribution to your intended beneficiaries
Examples of what the Transfer On Death instruction does NOT do:
The S.T.A.R. System gives you the option to nominate an emergency contact who we can contact or can inform us about the unforeseen circumstances. Once it has been made known, we will freeze the account until proper instructions such as a letter of administration with the authorized executioner stating the method of distribution of the assets.
We have another option for single personal accounts where they can opt for Transfer on Death and more details are stated in our User Agreement.
Kindly contact us at [email protected] for more details.
Silver Bullion is in a very strong financial position and is in one of the safest countries in the world. However any well designed system has to make business continuity provisions to address such eventualities. The S.T.A.R. Storage system is implicitly designed so that your ownership claim is clear no matter what happens. Furthermore we have appointed a liquidator to provide Business Continuity in such an event and established a process to insure the ownership information is safely, correctly and unequivocally transmitted.
The liquidator fallback relies on a liquidator to act. The S.T.A.R. system also implicitly has a more direct built-in safeguard as you legally own the bullion and if Silver Bullion, who acts as your agent vs. Vault Operator, can no longer fulfill this duty and the liquidator system fails then you can claim your property directly under law.
The latest Parcel Ownership List will clearly list the S.T.A.R. account IDs of the owners of each parcel. Although the Vault Operator only knows your S.T.A.R. Storage ID your Tax Invoice or parcel holdings lists your purchased Parcels and S.T.A.R. Storage ID and full name / address, make your legal claim to the bullion parcels clear and unequivocal.
Yes, you are able to view Silver Bullion’s financial profile from the ACRA (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority) Bizfile’s website https://www.bizfile.gov.sg
You can follow this pdf guide on how to retrieve the financial profile of Silver Bullion from the Bizfile website.