ICBC has become a market maker for the inter-bank gold price asking market of China, engaging in bilateral price quotation for various products with different terms and providing liquidity support to the market. Shanghai Gold Exchange and China Foreign Exchange Trading System decided to introduce the market maker mechanism to the inter-bank gold price quotation market as of January 2016. 

With over 29 million precious metals business customers, ICBC, the world’s largest gold retail bank and the largest agency trading and clearing bank of Shanghai Gold Exchange, has a precious metals trading volume of nearly 160,000 tons. Sizable and stable customer base, spot precious metals flow, capital flow and data & information flow lay a solid foundation for ICBC's participation in the gold market. ICBC, after becoming a market maker, will leverage the group-wide advantages in precious metals business to build a systemically complete and competitive gold market maker model, and drive the development of the gold market in China. 

Industry insiders have pointed out that introduction of the market maker system to China’s inter-bank gold price quotation market marks a significant step to the infrastructure construction of the gold market in China. The implementation of the market maker system will further enrich market trading modes, increase liquidity of the inter-bank gold market and enhance trading efficiency of institutional investors. It is also conducive in playing out the functions of the interbank market in wholesale financing and risk hedging, highlighting the positioning of the inter-bank wholesale market, which will eventually facilitate the building of a multi-layered market system of the domestic gold market and optimize the resource allocation by the gold market. In addition, the market maker system will help improve the medium and long-term price discovery mechanism of the OTC market, boost the establishment of benchmark price system in the medium/long term, and elevate the gold pricing ability and international influence of China.