Under the new regulation, only 38 qualified businesses with nearly 2,500 trading points licensed by the SBV became eligible for trading in gold bars. Thousands of unlicensed businesses became ineligible to trade gold bars.
A day after the regulations were enforced, a significant difference between licensed and unlicensed gold businesses was witnessed at Tran Nhan Tong Street jewelry traders.
While gold buyers concentrated on trading points of licensed businesses, such as Phu Quy Diamond and Gold Company and DOJI Gold and Gems Group, other small and unlicensed stores received few customers.
Manager of Phu Quy Company’s Sales Department, Nguyen Cong Hieu, said that the volume of gold bars traded at the store decreased compared to the previous year due to the gap between domestic and world prices, but the trading activities remained stable. The SBV's tighter control over gold bar trading was reasonable as the move would gradually stablise the gold market in both price and quality, he added.
Sales people at small gold stores said that gold bullion transaction at their stores had been very low for nearly a month because people had moved to big stores to negate the possibility of trade in fake and poor-quality gold. As a result, unqualified gold bar trading businesses switched to trading gold rings and jewelry.
Gold bar trading at several commercial banks on Nguyen Van Cu and Tran Hung Dao streets in Hanoi is modest, as people are not familiar with trading gold bullion with banks and they are await market developments.
A number of banks including VietinBank, TienPhongBank, SHB and others began carrying out gold bar transaction services at their branches. SHB General Director, Nguyen Van Le, said that the SBV’s permission to trade gold bars would provide SHB customers more services and they would be satisfied when purchasing and sending gold bars at the bank.
The SBV made public the list of qualified businesses granted licences for gold bar trading and their points of trade across the country. The SBV will continue monitoring the market developments to promptly handle potential issues.