As related, with a trading volume of over 1500 tonnes, ICBC achieved remarkable progress in precious metal business for the first six months this year. In terms of customer scale, ICBC topped the league table with more than 900 000 customer accounts cumulatively as of today.
Since the first dealing house in domestic commercial banks Precious Metal Department dedicated to the trading of precious metal set up in September last year, ICBC continues the efforts in product and service integration, risk management, service capability and product innovation in order to meet the emerging needs of the customers.
ICBC has evolved a product portfolio of 4 types of precious metals encompassing physical metals, trading metals, wealth management metals and precious metal financing. ICBC offers a wide spectrum of innovative products to meet the diversified needs of the customers. Today, nearly 30% of the total transaction volume is derived from the new products specially catered for this market segment.
Take physical metals as an example. The "Ruyi Silver Ingot" and "Year of the Tiger Silver Medallion" launched in Lunar New Year were warmly received. In trading metals, new products include paper silver and new service of deferred settlement for gold and silver on behalf of Gold Exchange. Customers now have the investment options in margin leverage and two-way market.
In wealth management metals, in June ICBC launched the sales of Combo Ruyi Gold - the first ICBC wealth management product that linked with physical precious metals. Meanwhile, ICBC also provides financing services for individuals and companies in the use of gold for raising funds such as gold leasing, loans under the pledge of gold.
According to ICBC spokesperson, ICBC is taking various measures to increase the standard of service to customers through the activities of "Service Value Year". In offering precious metal service, ICBC leverages its cutting-edge Internet Banking platform to launch the "Precious Metal Channel" besides adding more gold-selling outlets.
Through the service, ICBC provides all the latest market quotes and trend on precious metal, professional news and hot topic analysis for customers to take as reference. Also displayed is the full range of product lines covering account precious metal, brokerage of physical precious metal, deferred settlement of physical gold, and Ruyi gold.
Customers will find this trading channel an easy and convenient way to invest in precious metal without walking out of the door.
The ICBC spokesperson continued that China is the largest gold-producing country and the second largest gold consuming nation in the world. Chinese are used to hoard gold at home. Gold market in China is galloping fast as Chinese earn more everyday. The market potential is huge. In the next step, ICBC will continue to meet the demand of customers for diversified and personalized services with its capacity to innovate and the quality of professional services. ICBC strives to add new driving force to achieve sustainable, stable and healthy growth of the business.
