Corporate treasuries and sovereign allocators do not select a vault; they select an assurance model. The physical vault is table stakes. What distinguishes a Tier 1 safekeeping facility is the layered system of controls, evidence and independent oversight that turns storage into a credible custody service.
Physical construction and access barriers
Certified vault construction — reinforced concrete, hardened doors, seismic and thermal sensors — is the baseline. Above it sits a layered access architecture: mantraps, biometric authentication, dual-control entry and role-segregated permissions that make unilateral action architecturally impossible.
Surveillance, monitoring and response
Continuous surveillance means more than cameras. It means redundant power, off-site recording, AI-assisted anomaly detection and a monitored response contract with defined arrival times. Sensor data — vibration, motion, temperature, door state — feeds a central control room whose escalation runbook is contractually visible to the client.
Inventory integrity and reconciliation
Bar-level records with serials, refiners, assays and gross and fine weights are reconciled to physical stock on a defined cadence. Movements are captured as controlled events with dual sign-off, and any variance triggers an investigation workflow rather than a footnote in a monthly report.
Independent audit and attestation
Independent auditors — engaged by the client, not the custodian — should have the right to inspect vault contents, reconcile ledgers and observe controls without notice. Attestations should be dated, scoped and signed, and the custodian should welcome, not merely tolerate, that scrutiny.
Insurance, liability and disclosure
The insurance stack, policy limits, sub-limits, exclusions and named-perils coverage must be documented in the client contract. So must the treatment of allocated versus unallocated holdings, commingling policies and the client's rights on custodian default. Ambiguity here is a red flag.
Governance, personnel and continuity
Background-checked personnel, segregation of duties, rotation policies, and business-continuity arrangements — including geographically separate backup sites and rehearsed recovery plans — complete the picture. A facility that can articulate these controls in writing, and evidence them on demand, is one worth trusting with wealth.
Exigo Logistics assesses safekeeping arrangements against this framework and structures client mandates so every control is not just present but demonstrable.