Major Banks Suspend and Then Resume Gold Accumulation Services; Some Banks Have Already Raised Gold Bar Prices to Include Tax

On November 3, affected by gold tax policy changes, several banks including ICBC, China Construction Bank (CCB), and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) suspended services such as gold accumulation and physical gold exchange. Some other banks made significant adjustments to related services without completely suspending them.

For example, China Merchants Bank had already shifted some of its self-operated physical gold products to an agency sales model on Monday, while temporarily delisting some other self-operated products. According to branch staff and customer service representatives, the bank's investment gold bar prices have now been adjusted to include tax based on the new policy.

Furthermore, ICBC swiftly announced the restoration of its related services later that same evening. What is the extent of the impact of the new tax policy on banks' precious metals businesses behind these back-and-forth changes? An industry insider told reporters that considering the sales model characteristics of bank investment gold bars, the new policy has a certain impact on the cost structure of banks' precious metals businesses, but the overall impact is limited. Subsequently, the cooperation models between banks and third-party institutions like gold companies may undergo changes.

That morning, ICBC had issued an announcement stating that due to macroeconomic policy influences and in accordance with the bank's risk management requirements, from November 3, 2025, it would suspend accepting new applications for Ruyi Gold Accumulation accounts, active accumulation, new regular accumulation plans, and physical gold withdrawal requests. The execution of existing clients' valid regular accumulation plans, as well as redemption and account closure services, remained unaffected.

CCB also announced that day that due to market fluctuations and combined with prudent risk management requirements, from November 3, 2025 (inclusive), it would suspend accepting real-time buy orders for its Easy Accumulation Gold service, new fixed investment buy orders, and physical gold exchange applications. The execution, redemption, and account closure of existing clients' Easy Accumulation Gold fixed investment plans remained unaffected; it also suspended applications for personal gold accumulation exchanges for physical precious metals and account gold exchanges for physical precious metals, while other personal gold accumulation services were unaffected.