Bank Precious Metals Business Tightens Further, How Should Investors Allocate?

Since the end of 2025, international gold prices have experienced a rollercoaster market, and banks have increased the frequency of adjustments to precious metals.

According to reports from the International Financial News, in addition to the continuously rising investment thresholds and risk level requirements for stored gold, many institutions have recently explicitly halted agency physical precious metals deferred transactions or announced trading limit management for stored gold businesses.

Experts interviewed pointed out that banks’ measures are partly to proactively control customer risks amid extreme market volatility and partly to implement investor suitability management. With gold prices fluctuating at high levels, it is expected that bank precious metals businesses will shift from simple trading channels to comprehensive wealth management services in the future.

Precious Metals Business Risk Control Tightens

From the official websites of various banks, current precious metals services mainly include physical gold sales, stored gold products, and agency services for individual precious metals trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

Notably, Postal Savings Bank of China and China Minsheng Bank recently announced the suspension of agency services for individual precious metals trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

According to Postal Savings Bank’s announcement, based on their February 11 business adjustment notice, they will cease agency services for individual precious metals trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange from that day until 0:00 on March 13, 2026. The suspended products include Au99.99, Au100g, and others. The notice warns that customers holding these contracts or inventory must sell or close their positions by 0:00 on March 27, 2026, or face forced account actions.

Minsheng Bank stated that since market close on July 22, 2022, they have already closed buy and open position functions for this type of business. Due to recent severe market fluctuations, they remind individual clients who have not yet terminated contracts to promptly close or sell their positions, withdraw funds, and terminate agreements to prevent risks.

It is noteworthy that at the end of February this year, several state-owned banks proactively implemented risk management measures, raising the margin ratio for individual clients’ deferred contracts on the Gold Exchange to 100%.

Additionally, some institutions’ stored gold businesses have also introduced quota management after multiple threshold increases. On March 15, a social media user shared a screenshot of a failed purchase attempt of stored gold from a certain bank with the message: “Stored gold has reached the limit today, please try again tomorrow.”

In early March, China Construction Bank announced that, to further strengthen risk control, they would implement dynamic trading limits on CCB Gold (including Easy Storage Gold) starting March 4. Meanwhile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) clarified in their latest Ruyi Gold stored gold business agreement that they will dynamically manage limits based on market conditions, risk management needs, business requirements, and regulatory demands. These limits include maximum daily stored or redeemed amounts for all customers, single customer daily limits, and single transaction limits.

An industry insider told reporters that these measures are partly to proactively control customer risks amid extreme market fluctuations and partly to fulfill the responsibility of protecting financial consumers.

“Gold prices hit record highs again in early 2026, with volatility significantly increasing. Banks stopping or limiting related businesses aim to avoid clients’ potential margin calls during sharp market moves. Additionally, some individual investors may engage in irrational speculative behaviors like chasing high prices, so tightening business policies also serve to fulfill their duty of consumer protection,” the expert explained.

Transition to Comprehensive Wealth Management Services

“Since March 3, international spot gold prices have been volatile, dropping from $5,321.43 per ounce to $4,813.53 on March 18, a decline of 9.54%. This counterintuitive trend mainly stems from the significant suppression of safe-haven logic by interest rate dynamics,” said Qu Rui, Senior Deputy Director of the Research and Development Department at Dongfang Jincheng.

Qu Rui believes that gold prices will show a pattern of “short-term pressure and medium- to long-term improvement.” In the short term, high crude oil prices will keep the Federal Reserve’s high interest rate stance and a strong dollar, continuing to suppress gold prices. However, if conflicts persist longer, inflation and economic growth will be more significantly impacted, increasing market demand for gold. In the medium to long term, as the effect of rising oil prices diminishes and inflation gradually recedes, the Fed’s rate cut cycle, though delayed, will not be absent. Coupled with ongoing global de-dollarization, steady central bank gold purchases, and weakening dollar credit, gold prices are expected to fluctuate and rebound.

In response to recent changes in the precious metals investment market, banks have issued multiple risk warnings, advising investors to enhance their awareness of risks, invest rationally and prudently based on their financial situation and risk tolerance, maintain balanced and moderate allocations of precious metals, and control positions reasonably to avoid blind follow-the-market operations.

With gold prices fluctuating at high levels, how will banks adjust their precious metals businesses in the future?

Liu Youhua, Director of Wealth Research at Paipai.com, believes that future bank precious metals businesses will shift from simple trading channels to comprehensive wealth management services. The focus will turn to products that can smooth volatility and suit long-term allocation, utilizing technology to enhance risk disclosure and optimize business structure.

“For investors, it is recommended to abandon high-leverage derivatives and short-term speculation, view gold as a long-term ‘stabilizer’ in their asset portfolio rather than a short-term trading tool, and use tools like gold ETFs for long-term, phased allocation to reduce timing risks and share long-term trends. It is also important to reasonably set the proportion of gold assets in total personal assets to achieve risk diversification,” Liu concluded.

Reporter: Li Ruohan