7 banks are qualified to produce gold bars if charter capital requirement is from 50,000 billion VND

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is seeking comments on a draft amendment to Decree 24 on the management of gold trading activities.

Accordingly, the draft decree stipulates the end of the State monopoly mechanism in the production of gold bars, export of raw gold and import of raw gold to produce gold bars.

Instead of assigning it to only one unit as it is now, in the near future, the management agency will monitor the market by granting limits and licenses to import gold each time to qualified credit institutions and businesses.

To be licensed to produce gold bars, businesses must meet specific conditions, such as having a minimum charter capital of VND1,000 billion.

gold price 6.jpg — Enterprises that want to produce gold bars must have a charter capital of 1,000 billion VND. Photo: Minh Hien

These units must be on the list of licensed entities to buy and sell precious metals, not violate the law in their business activities, or if they do, have already remedied the consequences.

In addition, the draft Decree amending Decree 24 also adds clear regulations on the responsibilities of credit institutions and enterprises licensed to produce gold bars.

Specifically, units are only allowed to produce the prescribed type of gold bars and must announce the applicable standards, weight and gold content according to the law; and are responsible for the product's compliance with the announced standards.

Manufacturing enterprises must also guarantee gold bar products for customers and are fully responsible before the law for the products they produce.

Along with that, units must build a system to store complete and accurate information on gold bar production data and are responsible for connecting and providing information to competent authorities according to regulations.

Credit institutions considered by the State Bank for granting licenses to produce gold bars must have charter capital of VND50,000 billion or more, and must fully comply with the same conditions as enterprises to be considered for a license to produce gold bars.

Currently, the whole country has 38 organizations licensed to trade in gold bars, but only a few large enterprises have enough capital to participate in production.

On the banking side, Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank, MB, Agribank , VPBank and Techcombank currently have charter capital of VND50,000 billion or more.