On June 24, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) issued an announcement stating that, effective from the end-of-day settlement on Friday, July 24, the bank will cease its agency services for personal precious metals auction trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange. The affected contract varieties include Au99.99, Au100g, Au99.95, PGC30g, Au (T+D), mAu (T+D), Ag (T+D), Au (T+N1), Au (T+N2), among others.

Following the completion of the end-of-day settlement on Friday, July 24, ICBC will close the trading permissions for the agency personal auction business across various channels, including mobile banking, online banking, and branch counters, at an appropriate time. After the closure, the permissions for clients with open positions to close positions, sell, or take delivery will be restricted.

ICBC advises existing clients holding positions to promptly use channels such as mobile banking, online banking, or branch counters to sell, close positions, or take delivery for all types of auction trading contracts they hold, and to withdraw any remaining funds from their margin accounts. For clients with no open positions, no inventory, and no outstanding debts, ICBC will subsequently process a batch withdrawal of remaining funds in their margin accounts on their behalf.

On June 24, precious metals prices continued to decline. Spot silver fell below $61 per ounce during the session, representing a drop of over 50% from its January high. Spot gold fell below $4,100 per ounce during the session, marking a decline of more than 27% from its January peak.