OREANDA-NEWS. February 03, 2014. In 2013, ICBC continued to strengthen innovation amid changing market environment to meet customer needs for investment in precious metals. Last year, ICBC posted a volume of 136, 600 tons, up 35% from a year earlier, with the value rising 18% year-on-year to RMB 1.31 trillion.

"Innovation" remains as the key driver behind the consistent growth, said an executive with the Bank. In 2013, ICBC launched new products in succession to expand its offering comprising physical precious metals, precious metal trading, precious metal financing and precious metal wealth management, further enriching options and channels for precious metal investment.

In terms of physical products, ICBC hired top-notch artists to design creative products and selected professional partners to produce most quality-warranted precious metal products. Themed products such as "Red Memory", "Heaven and Earth of Teapot", "Master Huineng", "Marquis Guan Yu", "Lunar Exploration" have been well-received by the market.

In precious metal trading, Gold Accumulation Plan and T+D services were open to corporate clients for asset management, which helped them rapidly expand the business scale with a significant jump in turnover from the previous year.

In precious metal financing, based on in-depth research into the industry chain of precious metals, ICBC launched new products such as gold swap and silver leasing, creating a complete product line covering upstream, mid-stream and downstream demand for hedge against risks. By combining investment banking expertise and strength in precious metal supply chain, ICBC assisted the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration of Anhui Province to issue two mining investment funds (Wanjin Tianli and Wanjin Tianfeng), raising nearly RMB 100 million. The deal demonstrated the strength of ICBC to provide overall financial service to the gold supply chain.