What is World Gold Council (WGC)?

About World Gold Council (WGC)

• It is the market development organisation for the gold industry.
• WGC is a nonprofit association formed in 1987 whose members comprise the world’s leading and most forward-thinking gold mining companies.
• The WGC was established to promote the use of and demand for gold through marketing, research, and lobbying. 
• Headquartered in London, with operations in India, China, Singapore, and the USA, the WGC covers the markets which comprise about three-quarters of the world's annual gold consumption.
• The WGC is also the global authority on gold, and they offer comprehensive analyses of the industry. 
• It is an advocate for gold consumption. The WGC aims to maximize the industry's potential growth by monitoring and defending existing gold consumption.
  • It achieves this by setting up gold standards, proposing policies, ensuring fairness and sustainability in the gold mining industry, and promoting the usage and demand for gold for individuals, industries, and institutions.
• It also co-sponsors research in the development of new uses for gold, or of new products containing gold. 
• WGC was the creator of the first gold exchange-traded fund. 

Q1) What are Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)?

An ETF is a collection of marketable securities that tracks an index, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets. An ETF can be structured to track anything from the price of an individual commodity to a large and diverse collection of securities. ETFs can even be structured to track specific investment strategies. ETF funds are somewhat similar to mutual funds in terms of their structure, regulation, and management. Additionally, just like mutual funds, they are a pooled investment vehicle that offers diversified investment into various asset classes like stocks, commodities, bonds, currencies, options, or a blend of these. Unlike mutual funds, ETFs can be purchased or sold on a stock exchange in the same way that regular stocks can.

Source: RBI’s gold purchase highest in almost two years