As a sign of the heightened desire to protect wealth and store items such as gold, a new storage facility is opening in London's Mayfair district.

A new bank vault catering only for ultra-high net worth individuals opens in London’s fashionable Park Lane this week, a report said.  

International Bank Vaults is opening its facility at 46 Park Lane, in the Mayfair district, according to the Guardian newspaper report. It quoted Sean Hoey, managing director of the operation, as saying: “We will be dealing only with billionaires.”

Hoey previously worked at renowned Knightsbridge department store Harrods where he was in charge of its safety deposit boxes.

The report said that the cheapest safety deposit box can be rented for £600 ($775) a year. The IBV website refers to services such as safe deposit boxes; jewellery storage; bullion storage, document storage, currency storage and bullion sales.

IBV is owned by South African multi millionaire Ashok Sewnarain. 

There’s a political backdrop: the newspaper quoted IBV as saying that it is opening because wealthy people are frightened of attacks on their wealth and want to be able to store gold and similar valuables in such places. Separately, negative interest rates – sometimes in nominal as well as real terms – have put people off banks.

WealthBriefing has contacted IBV for more details about its facility.