HCMC – The Government has issued a new decree amending several articles of Decree 24/2012, which includes ending state monopoly on gold bar production and opening the market to eligible businesses and banks.
According to Decree 232, which came out today, the State will no longer monopolize gold bar production. Now eligible businesses and banks can apply to make gold bars if they meet certain conditions.
Banks and businesses seeking a license to produce gold bars already hold a gold trading permit. They are also required to meet charter capital requirements, with at least VND1,000 billion for businesses and at least VND50,000 billion for commercial banks.
These entities have not been subject to administrative penalties for gold trading. If they have been sanctioned, they must have already remedied their violations. They are also required to issue in-house rules on gold bar production, including procedures for sourcing materials, manufacturing, supervision, and product quality control.
The application and licensing procedures for gold bar production will be regulated by the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), ensuring that only organizations with proven experience, sufficient financial capacity, and legal compliance are authorized to produce gold bars.
Those enterprises and credit institutions involved in gold bar trading must publicly post buying and selling prices and are not allowed to operate through authorized agents.
They are also required to take measures to ensure transaction security, store customer data, including ID information, tax code, and transaction value, and provide this information to the SBV.
Currently, 38 businesses and banks are licensed to trade gold bars. However, based on current charter capital requirements, only a few leading enterprises such as PNJ, DOJI, and SJC meet the threshold of VND1,000 billion or more.
On the banking side, Vietcombank, VPBank, Techcombank, BIDV, MB, VietinBank, and Agribank are among those with charter capital exceeding VND50,000 billion.
On May 28, Party General Secretary To Lam called for an abolition of state monopoly on gold bar production to foster fair competition, diversify supply, and stabilize prices.
The Vietnam Gold Trading Association and experts also repeatedly urged for a swift amendment of Government Decree 24 to “unlock” the gold market and narrow the wide gap between domestic and international gold prices.
At a recent meeting on gold market management, the prime minister said that the price gap should be reduced to around 1-2%.
