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ACB denies its gold exchange traded in futures
Going by the assertion of the Asia Commercial Bank, Vietnam hasn’t ever had a gold trading floor.
ACB has said that its Saigon Gold Trading Exchange wasn’t a gold marketplace. Investors at the exchange bought gold sold by ACB and vice versa, ACB deputy chairman Nguyen Duc Kien said at a press briefing last week, adding there has never been any transaction between investors themselves.
The press briefing was held after the Lao Dong newspaper last Wednesday quoted Dr. Ha Thi Ngoc Oanh, lecturer from the National Academy of Public Administration, as saying that ACB’s exchange was dealing in gold futures, which are forbidden in Vietnam.
“ACB intentionally failed to clarify whether its gold trading is in futures or physical,” she said in the paper.
Oanh also added that the State Bank of Vietnam had approved only 20 enterprises, mainly banks, to open accounts with foreign lenders to buy gold, but hadn’t allowed them to sell this gold to domestic investors through their accounts in the country.
“We opted for the name ‘Saigon Gold Trading Exchange’, so it is easy for our client to understand,” said ACB’s general director Ly Xuan Hai. “But it’s totally not a gold marketplace or a place where gold futures were carried.”
Kien said the Saigon Gold Trading Exchange was only a physical gold trading unit of ACB.
“The government had earlier struggled to supervise gold transactions, which were carried at gold shops,” he said. “Therefore ACB set up the exchange to meet the domestic demand for gold trading.”
ACB opened the Saigon Gold Trading Exchange, the first of its kind in Vietnam, in May last year.
The exchange, which is a small room where customers crowd around a single 14-inch flat screen which displays buy and sell orders and international prices for gold, crude oil and silver, shows its daily transactions average about 90,000 to 100,000 taels, worth about US$100 million. One tael is equivalent to 1.2 ounce.
Dong A Bank, Viet A Bank, Phuong Nam Bank (Southern Bank) and Eximbank operate the city’s four other gold trading exchanges alongside ACB.
About 95 percent of Vietnam's gold is imported from Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Switzerland, according to Reuters.
Gold prices in Vietnam have risen 8 percent in 2008 but are still below the year-high of VND19.51 million (US$1,182) per tael, reached in late May.
On the local market, the selling price of the precious metal stood at VND16.75 million per tael, or $844 per ounce, Sunday. Spot gold fell to $684.90 an ounce, a new 13-month low, before recovering to trade at $702.00/704.00 at 13:35 GMT. It was quoted at $720.00 in New York late on Thursday.
Thanhnien
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