Goldfinger bows out of precious metals The gold market has just lost one of its most senior figures. Jeremy Charles, the veteran head of precious metals at HSBC, retires on Friday after a career of nearly four decades at the heart of the bullion industry. In that time, he helped to revolutionise the market. Under Mr Charles, HSBC's precious metals division has become one of the largest and most profitable franchises in the industry. With just 27 front office staff, competitors estimate that the bank's precious metals division makes annual revenues of $200m-$300m a year, rivalled only by ScotiaMocatta, UBS, and JPMorgan. Along with JPMorgan, HSBC trades more gold in the London market than any other bank, traders say. Mr Charles, who started his career in 1975 as a 19-year-old "tea boy" at NM Rothschild and went on to become chairman of the London Bullion Market Association, has witnessed the transformation of the gold market from a backwater into one of the most profitable areas of many banks. The industry in no small part has Mr Charles to thank for that. A decade ago, gold bankers spent their time selling the yellow metal on behalf of central banks, hedging on behalf of miners, or lending to jewellers. But now central banks are buying, not selling, miners have stopped hedging, and the gold jewellery industry is in decline. The focus has shifted to investors, and Mr Charles has been at the leading edge of the change. In 2002, an Australian entrepreneur called Graham Tuckwell asked him for his help setting up an exchange-traded fund backed by physical gold. Mr Tuckwell had been rebuffed by several other banks, but Mr Charles was supportive. "If it wasn't for Jeremy, the whole idea of the gold ETFs would have been a lot longer coming," says Mr Tuckwell, chairman and founder of ETF Securities. The advent of gold ETFs has turned the industry on its head. Collectively, they now hold more gold than all but a handful of central banks, and the easy access to gold investment has helped invigorate the decade-long bull market that spurred gold prices to a record $1,920 an ounce last year. They have also transformed the profitability of bullion banking. While a decade ago, the gold vaults of banks such as HSBC and JPMorgan were almost empty, they are now groaning with gold and silver, much of it owned by ETFs. HSBC earned $39m alone last year from storing the gold of the SPDR Gold Shares fund, the industry's largest ETF, according to regulatory filings. Mr Charles entered the precious metals industry by luck. Responding to a job advert that sought "someone with two A-levels who enjoys travel," he ended up joining the bullion operations team at NM Rothschild, and later moved to Johnson Matthey Bankers to become a dealer. He was just beginning his training as a trader in 1980 when gold prices spiked to $850 an ounce and silver to more than $50 an ounce. Later, he represented JMB at the "gold fixing," the daily meeting of the members of the LBMA to establish a clearing price for gold, when it was still held at the offices of Rothschild and each trader had a Union flag on his desk which he lowered to indicate that he had concluded his business. In 1983, he helped deal with the fallout from one of the most high-profile robberies in British history when 6,800 of JMB's gold bars were stolen in the "Brinks-Mat" heist. And at least once he has had to defuse a security crisis by intervening between British airport authorities and a foreign central bank that had sent an armed convoy to guard its gold shipment. As well as being one of the most senior figures in the industry, he is also among the most popular. Nicknamed "007" by clients and colleagues for his resemblance to Daniel Craig, the actor who plays James Bond, he is known as an advocate of the precious metals industry and a patient educator of colleagues, clients, politicians, competitors - and journalists. As he retires, the future for gold is unclear. Flows into ETFs have stalled; physical demand for gold from India and the Middle East has slowed sharply; and investors are questioning the sustainability of the gold bull market. What will the next decade hold?