Chinese banks shut down retail trading services for precious metals
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by assets, will fully cease individual precious metals trading on July 24, 2026. It’s not alone. A growing list of major Chinese banks is systematically dismantling the infrastructure that once let millions of retail investors speculate on gold and silver prices.
What’s actually happening
ICBC announced the suspension on June 25, 2026, giving customers roughly a month to wind down positions.
Postal Savings Bank of China, Ping An Bank, and China Guangfa Bank have all adopted similar measures. The pattern is consistent across institutions: halt new account openings, close dormant accounts, refund idle margins, and ratchet up the cost of staying in.
Margin requirements on some products have been raised as high as 140%. For context, that means a retail trader needs to put up $1.40 in collateral for every dollar of exposure.
New retail accounts linked to the Shanghai Gold Exchange have been paused since late 2020. By December 2025, banks including ICBC and China Construction Bank began actively closing dormant accounts and returning unused margin funds.
Why now, and why this aggressively
Gold surged to approximately $5,600 per ounce earlier this year. Then it plummeted below $4,000 per ounce by June, driven by a strengthening US dollar and shifting market conditions. That’s a drawdown of nearly 30% in a matter of months.
Chinese regulators have seen this movie before. The 2020 “Crude Oil Treasure” crisis remains a scar on the country’s financial system. Bank of China’s crude oil-linked product imploded when oil futures went negative in April 2020, leaving retail investors owing money they never expected to lose.
The current restrictions on precious metals trading are a direct descendant of that crisis. Regulators and state-owned banks started restricting retail access to leveraged gold trading almost immediately after, beginning in late 2020.
What this means for investors
The immediate impact on physical gold demand in China appears limited. Investors can still buy gold bars, coins, and jewelry. Institutional trading channels remain open. The Shanghai Gold Exchange itself isn’t going anywhere.
What’s disappearing is the speculative layer — the leveraged products that let retail investors make outsized bets on price movements without actually owning any metal.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
TSMC captures Intel's market and discusses Terafab cooperation with Musk, reaching a record high in stock price
TSMC's US stock closed up 2.8%, while Intel, which joined the Terafab project in April this year, saw its share price fall by 2.6%. Musk confirmed on social media that preliminary discussions have taken place between TSMC and Terafab. According to reports, industry insiders estimate there is over an 80% probability of collaboration between TSMC and Terafab.
Record-breaking AI chip financing launches distribution: 42 billion senior debt backed by Broadcom credit endorsement, 18 billion subordinated debt awaits Anthropic IPO
According to reports, approximately $42 billion in Broadcom-secured senior secured loans have taken the lead in syndicate distribution, with Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley beginning to sell portions of the debt to other banks. Leveraging Broadcom's A- credit rating, the debt may later enter the private placement or investment-grade bond markets. Additionally, $18 billion in unsecured subordinated debt not guaranteed by Broadcom will be launched later, with Blackstone having committed to subscribe to about $9 billion of it.
Crypto prices
More
