SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Industrial and Business Financial institution of China (ICBC) stated on Friday it can prohibit sure kinds of retail companies involving foreign-exchange and commodities buying and selling.
The transfer by China’s largest financial institution comes alongside a variety of actions by regulators to curtail monetary dangers that embrace dampening commodity value rises, banning cryptocurrency transactions and limiting property hypothesis.
The financial institution’s restrictions additionally come as international power costs have surged in response to energy shortages in China and another elements of the world.
ICBC stated in an announcement that beginning Oct 17 it can droop new account openings for so-called “account foreign exchange enterprise”. Below this enterprise, people can commerce foreign exchange towards the yuan for speculative or hedging functions, and can’t withdraw or switch the foreign exchange from the buying and selling accounts.
Ranging from Nov 14, present purchasers can be barred from opening new buying and selling positions.
ICBC will even cease taking in new purchasers from Oct 17 in the same buying and selling enterprise involving power, base metallic, agricultural merchandise and treasured metallic indexes, ICBC’s assertion stated.
“Threat is excessive nowadays in international foreign exchange and commodities markets, so please take note of controlling dangers,” the financial institution stated.
In latest months, ICBC and different banks, together with Financial institution of China and China Retailers Financial institution closed international change buying and selling companies that had let particular person purchasers wager on non-yuan foreign money pairs.
Chinese language regulators have been tightening management over the nation’s foreign money market, Reuters reported final month.
Chinese language banks have been burnt by dangerous funding merchandise prior to now. Final 12 months, Financial institution of China’s purchasers suffered losses in a crude oil-linked product after a slide in oil costs.
(Reporting By Shanghai Newsroom; Modifying by David Goodman and Jane Merriman)
