Davo77 An investments bank's or a regulated bank's basic premise is to make money off other people's assets. The difference between an investment bank and a bank, however, is that an invstment bank can utilise other people's assets as if it were their own, such as selling them and using the cash elsewhere, or leveraging against them. A regulated bank cant do that. It has to keep deposits seperate from its own investments. MS and GS becoming regulated banks is monumental for gold....In other words, the days of borrowing gold for lease rates of 2%, selling the gold and investing the money in treasuries at 5% are well and truly over. Slowly, the days of crushing gold for investments in other assets are coming to an end...Thank F**k for that..