OREANDA-NEWS. December 01, 2014. China Gold Association has recently released "China Gold Top Five (Ten) Rankings" for 2013, which shows that ICBC, with its stellar performance in the gold business segment, beat many gold manufacturing and operating enterprises and commercial banks and took first position among the "Top Ten Enterprises by Gold Trading Volume on the Shanghai Gold Exchange". It was the second consecutive time the Bank found itself at the top of the rankings. In addition, ICBC was ranked the third among "China Gold Top Five Enterprises by Sales of Private-Brand Gold Bars".

In recent years, China's booming gold market has created huge demand for commodity trading and financial services, which, in turn, provides vast room for commercial banks to participate in gold trading. As the first commercial bank engaging in specialized operation of precious metals in China, ICBC has built up extensive experience in spot operation, trading and industry chain financing of precious metals, established market-leading advantages with a mature and sound business system, and played an active role in boosting the development of the gold market.

In terms of physical precious metals, ICBC has developed over 300 products in eight series under two categories -- investment and collection, with more than 800 specifications available for customers to choose. Major precious metals are covered including gold, silver, platinum and palladium. In terms of held-for-trading precious metal products, ICBC has formed a full range of product lines including Gold Accumulation Products, agency business for SGE, and account-based precious metal transactions. As a member of SGE, the Bank's share of floor trading volume has stayed above 20% for many consecutive years, and it has ranked first by agency service of spot gold and deferred transactions, agency clearing and agency warehousing volume from the year to date.