Banks are actively courting customers for gold accumulation plans.
A woman named Chen Li, who works in Shenzhen, has been investing in gold accumulation plans for over three years. After selling a portion of her holdings last October, she re-entered the market this March, with an initial cost basis above 1,050 yuan per gram. However, this time the correction period has been longer than anticipated. Her continued purchases led to increasing losses as the price fell to the current level of around 940 yuan per gram, resulting in a loss exceeding 30,000 yuan from her gold investments this year. Chen Li has now chosen to reduce her position slightly and adopt a wait-and-see approach.
In mid-June, the spot price of London gold once dipped to around $4,023 per ounce. Chen Li is not alone; many investors in gold accumulation plans have had similar experiences. Yet, just as investors are scaling back and observing the market, several banks have begun moving in the opposite direction. After intensively raising barriers and tightening trading hours for gold accumulation services at the beginning of the year, these services are now experiencing a wave of promotional easing, with banks employing a combination of tactics including lowering thresholds, extending night trading hours, and waiving fees.
This shift is driven by banks' considerations for refined operational management. Following a deep correction in gold prices during the second quarter, the transaction volume for gold accumulation services at many banks has noticeably shrunk. Consequently, the core logic behind this round of easing is twofold: to retain existing clients and to seize the opportunity presented by the cooling market to bring in conservative investors who were previously excluded due to high entry barriers.
Banks Employ Diverse Tactics to Attract Gold Investors
Entering May, as U.S. inflation data exceeded expectations, expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts cooled, the U.S. dollar index staged a strong rebound, and funds withdrew on a large scale from gold ETFs, leading to a rapid correction in gold prices.
On June 11th, the spot price of London gold fell to approximately $4,023 per ounce, a drop of over 20% from the high of $5,419 per ounce seen in early March, effectively erasing nearly all of its gains for the year.
Affected by this, the prices of domestic bank gold accumulation products have also declined. Taking a joint-stock bank as an example, its gold accumulation price has continuously retreated from a high of 1,239 yuan per gram at the end of January, falling to 940 yuan per gram on June 15th.
Against the backdrop of falling gold prices, several banks have reversed their earlier tightening stance, instead opting to ease restrictions on gold accumulation services, engaging in promotional competition across thresholds, trading rules, and fee structures.
Regarding participation thresholds, some banks have proactively adjusted the risk ratings of their gold accumulation products. For instance, on May 19th, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China announced that it would lower the product risk rating for its "Ruyi Gold" accumulation service from R3 to R2 (medium-low risk), correspondingly relaxing the required client risk tolerance level from C3 to C2 (conservative) or above. On May 25th, China Construction Bank announced that it would adopt a new version of the risk disclosure statement starting June 1st. While the risk rating remains R4, the description has been adjusted from "relatively high risk" to "medium-high risk."
In terms of trading rules, several banks have successively extended the night trading hours for gold accumulation. For example, Industrial Bank launched night trading functionality for its gold accumulation service starting May 8th, extending the trading hours via mobile banking and personal online banking channels to 9:00 AM to 2:00 AM the next day on trading days.
According to an incomplete tally, since the beginning of this year, six banks including China Merchants Bank and China CITIC Bank have successively extended their "night market" trading cutoff time from the original 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM the following day. This period coincides with the most active phase of international gold price fluctuations.
Chen Li has felt this change keenly. Last year, banks were competing to raise thresholds for gold accumulation and tightening trading hours, often causing her to miss opportunities due to an inability to monitor the market in real-time. Now, with night trading hours significantly extended, she feels much more at ease in tracking gold price movements.
Regarding fees, several banks have proactively waived or reduced handling fees for gold accumulation, using tangible benefits to attract investors. For example, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China recently announced that from April 1st to June 30th, the handling fee rate for active accumulation under its personal gold accumulation service would be discounted from 0.5% to 0.2%. From April 1st to December 31st, the handling fee rate for scheduled investments would be directly reduced from 0.5% to zero. Similar promotions are being rolled out in various regions. Bank of China's Hebei Branch launched a limited-time offer, where scheduled investments or purchases made every Friday until June 30th enjoy a discount of 1 yuan per gram. Changsha Bank, starting May 26th, directly waived the purchase handling fee for gold accumulation, while the selling handling fee remained unchanged at 0.5%.
Reasons Behind Banks' Intensive Easing of Gold Accumulation Rules
As gold prices correct and speculative funds recede, banks are adjusting their strategies accordingly.
A representative from a joint-stock bank in Guangdong, referred to as Li Wei, stated that in the second quarter of this year, the transaction volume for gold accumulation services at his bank showed a significant decline. The average daily transaction amount shrank by more than one-third compared to the peak in the first quarter, and the average number of daily new account openings also decreased compared to the earlier period.
Li Wei believes that the "overheating" risks accumulated during the rapid surge in gold prices have diminished as volatility has narrowed. Banks now consider the original risk ratings no longer aligned with the current market conditions, hence the decision to lower thresholds to more accurately match investors' actual risk tolerance. However, this is not a comprehensive loosening but rather a "dual-track adjustment." On one hand, barriers to entry are lowered by reducing risk ratings, offering fee discounts, and extending trading hours. On the other hand, banks continue to issue risk warnings and strengthen risk controls.
It has been noted that during recent periods of significant gold price volatility, several banks have indeed issued risk warnings. For example, on June 12th, Bank of China issued an announcement stating that under the influence of multiple factors, the volatility of domestic and international precious metal prices has further increased. To protect the interests of clients involved in gold accumulation and other precious metal-related services, the bank reminded clients to invest rationally based on their own financial situation and risk tolerance, reasonably control precious metal positions, and mitigate the impact of periodic price fluctuations through long-term investment.
This stands in stark contrast to the heated situation last year when bank precious metal businesses experienced both volume and price increases. In 2025, due to a significant rise in international gold prices, bank precious metal businesses became an important support for non-interest income. For instance, Postal Savings Bank of China's financial report showed that in 2025, the transaction amount for gold accumulation increased by 270.33% year-on-year, with related revenue growing by over 160%. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's financial report indicated that in 2025, net fee and commission income reached 111.71 billion yuan, an increase of 1.774 billion yuan from the previous year, mainly driven by growth in income from agency precious metal and related businesses.
In recent years, the asset scale of precious metal businesses through bank channels has continued to grow, with the scale at leading major banks being particularly substantial. As of 2025, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's precious metal asset scale exceeded 330 billion yuan, while Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank also had precious metal business scales reaching the hundred-billion-yuan tier.
Is Now a Good Time to Enter the Market After the Gold Price Drop?
So, after the decline in gold prices, is now a good time to "get on board"? Several industry insiders interviewed believe that the long-term upward logic for gold has not changed. However, it is highly likely to maintain a volatile pattern in the short term, with the possibility of increased fluctuations, requiring investors to proceed with caution.
In a recently disclosed research report, Zhengxin Futures stated that the dominant logic for gold prices has shifted from central bank purchases to the path of interest rates and inflation. A return to an upward trend for gold prices would require a synchronized recovery in both investment and consumer demand.
Zhengxin Futures further analyzed that the current decline in gold prices is mainly influenced by three factors. First, the Federal Reserve's hawkish expectations due to high inflation and resilient employment have pushed up U.S. Treasury real yields, suppressing investment demand for non-yielding assets like gold. Second, while central bank purchases remain generally stable, some countries have engaged in selling due to fiscal or exchange rate pressures, limiting net purchasing power. Third, high gold prices combined with the off-season for gold jewelry consumption in the second quarter have led to seasonally weak demand in major consumer countries like China and India.
"The decline in gold prices stems more from trading factors than from changes in expectations," pointed out Huang Runan, Chief China Macro Analyst at Orient Securities. He noted that expectation-based narratives such as the gradual erosion of U.S. dollar credibility and global central bank gold purchases remain unchanged. The primary factors are the deterioration in micro-trading structures coinciding with a global environment of tightening liquidity. The return of gold's value requires seeing signals of a clearing in the micro-trading structure, meaning gold needs to "de-anchor" again.
Huang Runan believes that if one were to judge that gold is ripe for a "bottom-fishing" opportunity based solely on expectations of improved liquidity, two risks exist. First, global liquidity remains fragile, and a state where it is easier to tighten than to loosen is unlikely to change in the short term, limiting the absolute return potential for gold. Second, even if there is a substantive easing of geopolitical tensions later, leading to improved global liquidity due to falling oil prices, technology-related equity assets might benefit more, offering potentially stronger relative returns compared to gold.
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