Aside from the four state-run Vietnamese banks Vietcombank, VietinBank, Agribank, and BIDV, the wholly state-owned Saigon Jewelry JSC (SJC) will start purchasing gold from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and sell the precious metal to residents starting Monday in an attempt to narrow the gap between domestic and global gold prices, the central bank announced on Sunday.

The wholly state-owned SJC, which is under the management of the Ho Chi Minh City administration, owns 36 stores offering SJC-branded gold bars.

The four lenders and SJC are set to offer gold bullion to customers from 2:30 pm on Monday and from 9:00 am on Tuesday.

The gold prices will be published on their official websites and at their transaction locations.

The country’s big-four banks noted that they will only sell SJC-branded gold bars to individual customers but will not buy those gold bars back. However, customers can trade in the SJC-branded bullion with SJC.

Residents need to take identity cards along with them to buy gold bullion at the transaction points.

To fully comply with money laundering prevention regulations, customers wishing to purchase gold bars in bulk must provide detailed necessary information or open bank accounts with these lenders before making the purchase.

Over the past month, the SBV has held nine gold auctions, with six of them being a success, supplying over 1.8 million metric tons of gold to the market in an effort to stabilize the local prices. 

However, the gap between domestic and international gold rates remains wide, arousing doubts about market manipulation, as well as pricing and gold trading violations.

Therefore, the central bank decided to scrutinize commercial banks and gold trading firms to impose harsh sanctions on violators and get the local gold market back on track.

At 8:30 am on Monday, SJC gold prices were quoted at VND80 million (US$3,129) per tael for buying and VND82.5 million ($3,221) per tael for selling, down VND500,000 ($19.52) and VND1 million ($39) per tael, respectively, against the figures listed on Sunday.

By 9:15 am on Monday, the selling price of the SJC-branded gold bars fell to VND81 million ($3,161) per tael and the buying rate down to VND79 million ($3,083) per tael, according to Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper.

One tael is equivalent to 1.21 troy ounces.

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