ICBC trades over 85,000 tons of precious metal in H1

At the end of June, ICBC traded over 85,000 tons of precious metal, or 3.5 times as much for the whole of 2010, and recorded a turnover of over RMB 840 billion, up 93% against 2010's. The Bank's over 3.7 million precious metal customers represented a fast growing customer base.

This allowed ICBC to pull further away from the peers in the precious metal business in the first hald of the year.

Among the commercial banks in China, ICBC offers the most number of physical precious metal products. During the first six months of this year, ICBC has sold 68 tons of physical precious metal, around 7 tons more than the total quantity sold in 2010.

In terms of precious metal financing, ICBC fosters closer ties with large gold group corporation, companies either producers or users of gold to launch the gold leasing service and provide loans pledged by precious metal. The aim is to support the growth of gold industry. During the first six months of 2011, ICBC has leased 28 tons of gold to the concerned gold companies, marking the beginning of ICBC's attempt on the financial services to an industry.

An executive with ICBC said that through product innovation, resource consolidation and channel set up, ICBC will continue the effort to explore the potential of precious metal market, and move faster to provide integrated, professional and global services for customers to invest in precious metal.