中國工行角逐全球黃金定價席位

3South Africa’s Standard Bank, which is selling its UK-based markets division to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, has emerged as a potential buyer of Deutsche Bank’s seat in the global gold price-setting process, according to three banking industry sources.

三位銀行業消息人士稱，準備將英國市場部門出售給中國工商銀行(ICBC)的南非標準銀行(Standard Bank)，已成爲德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)全球黃金定價席位的潛在買家。

Involvement in the London “fix”, as the global gold benchmark is known, was until recently considered prestigious among investment banks, if not particularly lucrative. But heightened regulatory scrutiny of all financial industry benchmarks in the wake of the Libor scandal has made participation in the gold benchmark much less attractive to western banks.

直到不久以前，參與設定全球黃金基準價“倫敦定價”(London fix)還被投行視爲富有盛望的活動，即便不是特別有利可圖。但在倫敦銀行間同業拆借利率(Libor)醜聞爆發後，監管機構對所有金融行業基準加強了監督，使得參與制定金價基準對西方銀行不再有那麼大的吸引力。

Deutsche Bank said in January it was ending its involvement in the gold and silver fix, as part of wider withdrawal from commodity markets. The move followed an inquiry by German regulators into precious metals price setting. The four other banks who determine the gold price via a twice-daily conference call are HSBC, Barclays, Société Générale and Bank of Nova Scotia.

德意志銀行今年1月表示，將退出金銀價的制定，這是該行撤出大宗商品市場舉措的一部分。此前德國監管機構對貴金屬定價展開調查。還有其他4家銀行通過每日兩次的電話會議確定金價，它們是匯豐銀行(HSBC)、巴克萊銀行(Barclays)、法國興業銀行(Société Générale)和豐業銀行(Bank of Nova Scotia)。

China last year became the world’s biggest consumer of gold and a banking source said ICBC’s investment in Standard Bank made it the “obvious candidate” to purchase Deutsche Bank’s seat. State-owned ICBC, the world’s largest bank by assets, has millions of customers in its retail gold business and its ambitions to raise its precious metals profile globally are well known in the sector.

中國去年成爲世界最大的黃金消費國，一位銀行業消息人士表示，中國工行對南非標準銀行的投資，使其成爲購買德意志銀行席位的“明顯候選者”。國有的工行是全球資產規模最大的銀行，其黃金零售業務擁有數百萬名客戶，而它提高貴金屬業務全球影響力的雄心在業界也是衆所周知的。

“ICBC wants to become a gold market-maker and joining the fix through Standard Bank makes it easier for the industry to digest,” said a banking source in London. “It [ICBC] is not worried about Western regulators. This would be a big, cheap statement for them.”

“工行希望成爲黃金做市商，通過標準銀行加入定價機制，將使業界更易於接受這一點，”倫敦一名銀行業消息人士表示，“工行不用擔心西方監管機構。這對他們來說將是一個重大而廉價的宣言。”

The last time a gold fix seat was sold was in 2004 when Rothschild sold its position to Barclays for a reported $1m.

黃金定價席位上一次交易發生在2004年，當時羅斯柴爾德(Rothschild)據報道以100萬美元將席位出售給巴克萊。