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With no management, gold trading floors may turn into casinos
The story about the troubles on ACB gold trading floor has raised a lot of worries about the bad management of gold trading floors.
Nguyen Thanh Toai, Deputy General Director of ACB, called the mistake of entering the wrong gold sale price on December 10 (VND17,000/tael instead of VND17mil) a ‘regrettable incident’. Toai told VietNamNet that ACB would meet investors to come up with solutions for the mistake. If no agreement can be reached between ACB and investors, ACB will have to meet investors in economic court.
The continued troubles on ACB gold trading floors have revealed a lot of problems related to the operation of gold trading floors.
Half a month has elapsed since the day the mistake of entering the wrong gold price occurred. Though investors have sent a lot of petitions, the service provider, which should take responsibility for the mistake, remains unruffled.
An investor related that he three times had gone to ACB’s local branches to appeal the transactions. However, the case of the investor could not be settled because the branch’s leader had left for a meeting. Only after local newspapers criticised the runner of the gold trading floor did ACB meet investors.
Though ACB finally had to meet investors and admitted to some share of responsibility, the way it has been treating investors and the silence of the State Bank of Vietnam in the last days shows that there exists a big hole in the legal framework related to state management work.
When press agencies contacted the State Bank of Vietnam, the highest management agency in the field, they were told that the case was under the jurisdiction of the HCM City Branch of the State Bank. However, the HCM City branch then said that it couldn’t deal with the case because there was no legal document it could refer to.
Meanwhile, an official from the State Bank of Vietnam, who asked to remain unnamed, revealed that 4-5 months before, the central bank sent a document to the government, asking for regulations on gold trading floor management, but the central bank has not received a reply.
As a legal framework is lacking, in transactions, the service provider always has the upper hand on investors. The regulations of the gold trading floors have been compiled by the bank itself.
The Law on Credit Institutions and other laws clearly stipulate that information about clients’ accounts must be kept secret. However, in fact, their information could not be kept secret in this case, as ACB, which runs the gold trading floor, which is also an investor like other investors, as it has the right to trade gold on the floor, can access investors’ accounts and make transactions from the accounts
The Vietnam Association of Financial Investors (VAFI) has every reason to say that the gold trading floors are like casinos, where investors cannot be protected by the laws.
However, analysts have pointed out that casinos have their own rules which prove to be very strict and ensure equality for all players, while gold trading floors don’t.
ACB said that it will be ready to meet investors in court if the two sides cannot reach any agreement on the dispute. However, it remains unclear how the court will judge if there is still no legal framework for gold trading floors.
Phuong Nam
vietnamnet
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