Asiamoney China Gold Awards

China Minsheng Bank is regarded as one of the most innovative and technology-savvy Chinese banks – and its precious metals

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), run by president Pan Weidong, is recognized by both its state-owned and joint stock commercial peers as a leading Chinese joint stock bank in gold trading. Over the last five years, its turnover from retail customers trading gold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange jumped 28 times, from Rmb41.6 billion ($5.8 billion) in 2014 to a record Rmb1.21 trillion in 2019. Year-on-year growth was nearly 127%.

Bank of China (BoC) entered the international gold market in the 1970s, when it was a specialized foreign exchange and trade bank – becoming the first Chinese commercial bank to do so.

Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), managed by president Zhang Qingsong, has a natural advantage over its Chinese peers when it comes to the retail market: it has at least 20,000 branches in mainland China, serving more than 600 million clients nationwide and providing its retail precious metal clients easy access to the products on offer.

In the decade since it set up its specialized precious metal business in Shanghai, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has become a leader in sales, trading, leasing and other services relating to physical and financial precious metals – particularly gold – for both retail and institutional clients. ICBC was the first bank to win a licence for its precious metals division. Over the last decade, it has grown into a full-service gold bank, offering clients over 500 products across 36 categories. More than 120 million clients have invested in ICBC’s regular gold investment product, which has brought in Rmb4.6 billion ($644 million) of income for the bank.

The inaugural Asiamoney China Gold Awards seek to recognise Chinese banks that have excelled in serving corporate and retail clients in the gold market. In making our decisions, banks were asked to prove their credentials through a range of products and services, customer base and the introduction of innovative offerings

China Minsheng Bank has won acclaim for its innovative products and services, even though it was not the first lender to serve precious-metal clients in the domestic banking sector.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank has established itself as a leader in the domestic retail gold market by virtue of its effective marketing strategy, outstanding education programmes and investment advisory services, even though it is a much smaller bank than the state-owned Chinese commercial banks by assets.