At least seven Chinese banks, including all of the country’s state-owned “Big Four,” said they would suspend the opening of new accounts for precious metals trading, according to public notices posted on the banks’ websites, reported Caixin.
In April, a collapse in global oil prices caused total losses of $1.4 billion among investors who had bet on Bank of China’s crude futures product. An executive at a major bank told Caixin that the incident had made regulators more “cautious” about complaints from investors.
China Construction Bank Corp. said in a Friday notice that it would temporarily stop open new accounts for trading in precious metals, including gold and silver, and in investment products at the Shanghai Gold Exchange starting Monday, due to “recent dramatic price fluctuations … on the international market, linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and global political and economic factors.”
The other three major state-owned banks made similar statements. Bank of China said it would suspend individual services linked to the Shanghai Gold Exchange from Saturday, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China both said they would stop opening precious metals trading accounts and business related to the exchange.