Gold: the rich are renting their bars for income as prices remain high

Gold prices have been smashing new records this year, and a growing cadre of wealthy investors and family offices are no longer content to let their gold bars sit idle in vaults. They are leasing their bullion to refiners, jewelers, and fabricators for interest, defying gold's reputation as a non-yielding asset. "We've got a whole bunch of phone calls with people saying, I have $2 million of gold bars, I have a million dollars-worth of gold bars. Can you lease it out for me?" said Gaurav Mathur, founder of SafeGold. "What's changed very substantially in the last few months is that a lot of the wealthier customers have now got comfortable with leasing," he told CNBC, adding that leasing volumes at SafeGold have increased from $2 million to $40 million since the start of the year. People are