leading broker said the erstwhile gold investors would now like to put money in assets which are safer and assure high returns like real estate and bank instruments the crash in gold prices has hit the gold traders and loan companies the most gold loan companies had so far been encouraging people to mortgage their gold and take loan against it with gold prices coming down these companies are facing a great market risk if prices come down further debtors would most likely prefer to buy fresh gold instead of reclaiming the mortgaged gold from the company after settling their dues these companies can at best seize the gold they possess which in any case has lesser value to the money they had offered to the debtor said kumar gold backed exchange traded funds etfs have been the least impacted among the lot people who had invested in the exchange are in waitandwatch mode an icici prudential asset management companys executive said they have been enquiring about the status of gold prices but have not been deterred by the decline so far in fact many new investors have shown interest in putting money in gold after its rate started declining