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Investors file complaints after gold trading floor reports incorrect fee
The fee for withdrawing in-kind gold on Pho Wall (Wall street) gold trading floor yesterday unexpectedly surged from VND 40,000 to VND 500,000/tael, and then dropped again to VND 50,000. Investors expressed anger over the trouble this incident created.
On the afternoon of November 13, four hours after the gold fee withdrawal incident, the transaction point that receives investors’ orders for Pho Wall Gold Joint Stock Company, located at VNS Securities Company on Dao Duy Anh Street in Hanoi, was full of investors who came to file complaints.
An Phuong, one of the investors, related that at 9:00 am on November 13, one hour after the trading session began, the electronic board showed the words: “The fee for withdrawing in-kind gold is VND 500,000/tael, effective as of November 13, 2008.” Leading up until this announcement, the fee had been VND 40,000/tael, effective as of August 7.
After the new gold withdrawal fee was announced, investors rushed to sell gold in order to avoid losses. As a lot of investors tried to sell gold on November 13, the gold price on the floor dropped back down from VND 16.505 million/tael to VND 16.4 million/tael within the hour.
Some investors came to the headquarters of Pho Wall Gold Joint Stock Company on Le Phung Hieu street to file complaints about the unexpected fee increases.
At 10.30 am, the electronic board at the investors’ order receiving point showed the correction, saying that the gold trading floor regretted the error in reporting the gold withdrawal fee.
An Phuong said that the overly high announced fee of VND 500,000/tael initiated panic in investors and prompted them to quickly place orders for sales, which contributed to them facing heavy losses.
Phuong said that previously, the gold trading floor always provided hard-copies of the written announcements, which were available at the transaction points before trading sessions began.
Representative of Pho Wall Gold Joint Stock Company, in talks with a VnExpress reporter on the afternoon of November 13, denied the mistake that occurred on the gold trading floor that morning.
Vu Tuan Anh, Deputy General Director of Pho Wall Gold Company, said that investors flocked to the company’s headquarters just because they were angry about their losses.
However, after the VnExpress reporter provided evidence of the gold trading floor’s mistake, specifically the words showing the trading floor regretting the error, Tuan Anh confirmed that this was a mistake made by a staff in charge of the electronic board.
“The employee mistakenly reported the fee. It should have been VND 50,000 instead of VND 500,000,” Tuan Anh said.
He affirmed that what happened on the morning of November 13 was just a ‘small incident.’
“The incident will not cause any damage to investors, since the gold withdrawal fee does not have any link to transaction activities,” Tuan Anh said.
Hoang The Toan, Head of the Operations and Brokerage Management Division of the company, said that the mistaken fee level existed for only a short period of time that lasted 5-10 minutes, and therefore, it could not affect investors.
VNE
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