I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.The pattern of differentiation continues
Lawyer Wang Zhi (pseudonym), who is about to receive his year-end bonus, feels a certain indescribable heat in the cold of early February. It is the residual warmth brought by the dramatic fluctuations in gold prices, as well as the projection of wealth anxiety at a specific moment.
On February 2, the global precious metals market experienced a significant correction. The spot gold price, which had once broken through the $5,500 per ounce mark, turned downward in just a few trading days, with a cumulative decline approaching 20% over several days.
Despite the panic surrounding the "epic crash" in the market, for Wang Zhi, volatility is a magnet—he is unwilling to completely miss out on this round of gold fever, yet he is wary of the severe fluctuations at the current high levels. Ultimately, he paused his attention before the gold-linked structured deposits launched by several large banks.
This is not just Wang Zhi's choice.
With a large number of deposits maturing coinciding with the year-end bonus distribution season, and with the residual warmth of the gold market still present, various gold-linked wealth management products are becoming the "winning hand" for banks to attract customers and gather deposits.
In this nationwide gold rush, the attitudes of large banks and small to medium-sized banks towards gold business are showing subtle differentiation:
On one side, state-owned banks are striving to "cool down" by raising thresholds and strengthening risk ratings to build a firewall;
On the other side, small and medium-sized banks, which are still "heating up," are trying to share in this feast by exploiting gaps in technology and channels.
Large Banks "Building Walls"
Against the backdrop of high gold prices and increased volatility, state-owned large banks and leading joint-stock banks are quietly launching a "retail investor exit" movement;
This strategy does not reject customers but rather attempts to isolate depositors who lack the capacity to withstand extreme volatility from high-risk speculative behavior by raising entry thresholds and designing risk-hedging products.
From the end of 2025 to early 2026, major commercial banks have successively raised the starting point for gold accumulation investment:
As of February 2, China Construction Bank has raised the minimum amount for its personal gold accumulation business (including daily average accumulation and optional day accumulation) to 1,500 yuan, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has raised the starting amount for gold accumulation to 1,100 yuan;
Among joint-stock banks, CITIC Bank has also raised the minimum amount for its gold accumulation plan to 1,500 yuan.
This adjustment is not merely due to price fluctuations caused by rising gold prices, but rather reflects the large banks' awareness that in extreme market conditions where daily fluctuations could overshadow a year's deposit earnings, small entry amounts make participants more sensitive to risk, necessitating filtering of "small and frequent" speculators.
Alongside the rigid monetary threshold, the rigor of risk ratings has also intensified.
Since mid-January, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has raised the risk admission level for its gold accumulation business to C3 (balanced) and above, clearly stating that only investors who "can accept asset value fluctuations and even face certain investment losses" are qualified to enter;
Agricultural Bank of China requires individual customers to obtain a cautious or higher assessment result in the risk assessment questionnaire when signing up for, purchasing, or investing in its gold accumulation business (including Gold Accumulation Plan No. 1 and No. 2) While defending against risks, national banks have begun to intensively shift towards structured products. Compared to letting retail investors fight in the secondary market, large banks prefer to package gold volatility into these standardized products with "limited gains and losses."
Specifically, Bank of Communications has launched the "Stable Add Wisdom" series of structured deposits linked to gold, which guarantee the principal. The underlying asset is the "closing price of the Shanghai Gold Exchange AU99.99 contract," with an annualized yield range of 0.5%-3.2%;
China Merchants Bank has issued several "Point Gold" series structured deposits linked to gold, with deposit terms ranging from 7 days to 367 days, a minimum deposit amount of 10,000 yuan, and a maximum of 300,000 yuan, with an expected annual interest rate of 1%-1.78% upon maturity.
Taking China Merchants Bank's "Point Gold Series Aggressive Bull Shark Fin 181-Day Structured Deposit" as an example:
From the profit mechanism perspective, this product is not a simple one-sided bullish tool; its core is a complex binary choice logic;
If during the observation period, the international spot gold price never touches the agreed "knock-out" price (upper limit), and at maturity the price is above the exercise price, investors can obtain an annualized yield close to 3.15%;
Once the gold price fluctuates sharply beyond a specific range, the product will trigger an "automatic exit" mechanism, and the annualized yield will drop back to around 1.2%, which is the principal protection level.
This design essentially allows banks to use financial derivatives to lock in clients' returns within a narrow fluctuation range, satisfying clients' desire to "take a gamble" while hedging against the potential payout pressure caused by a unilateral surge or drop in gold prices.
At the same time, foreign banks and local banks are also following up with gold deposit products:
For example, DBS Bank's "DBS Prosperity Wealth Management" has launched a bullish gold-themed structured deposit with a term of 12 months, offering annualized yields of 1.5% and 4%, with a minimum investment of 10,000 USD;
HSBC China has launched a structured deposit linked to gold mining companies, starting at 20,000 USD, with a term of 3 years and a maximum coupon rate of 4.5% annualized;
Several city commercial banks, including Jiangsu Bank, have also launched similar products, with a minimum deposit amount of only 10,000 yuan, and the yield rate defined by three tiers based on gold price fluctuations.
It can be observed that large banks have not abandoned the gold business; rather, they hope to lock in long-term funds through structured design at a relatively low principal protection cost, achieving a balance between risk and profit.
Small and Medium Banks "Borrowing the Path"
Unlike large banks that "build walls" to protect themselves, local city commercial banks and rural commercial banks have shown a stronger desire to enter the market during this wave.
In recent years' gold boom, institutions such as Jiangsu Bank, Nanjing Bank, and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank have actively laid out their gold business:
For example, Qingdao Bank has seen explosive growth in "other business cost expenditures" in its financial statements to optimize customer experience and increase investment in precious metals business;
Nanjing Bank has transformed from a "bystander" to a "trader" by continuously introducing professional trading talent and ultimately obtaining membership in the gold exchange.
This is because the hot gold business is a traffic entry point for wealth management and a powerful tool for expanding the customer base Li Xiaohua, the vice president of Hangzhou Bank, recently stated in an article that against the backdrop of the continuous strengthening of gold investment attributes and the iteration of a younger customer base, bank channels, leveraging their comprehensive financial service capabilities, are rising as the core places for the younger demographic to invest in gold.
However, most small and medium-sized banks still face core pain points in their gold business: they do not possess financial membership qualifications for the Shanghai Gold Exchange (full license) and cannot independently carry out self-operated gold accumulation business.
"Borrowing to layout" has become the survival rule for small and medium-sized banks to share the pie.
Especially for banks with weak technological foundations, "borrowing chickens to lay eggs" has become the mainstream approach: finding technology companies to buy systems, sourcing from large gold suppliers, while acting as a traffic channel themselves.
A person from a financial technology company pointed out to Xin Feng that a mature industrial chain has formed in the industry, with state-owned large banks or major gold traders providing support upstream, financial technology companies offering standardized systems in the middle, and small and medium-sized banks responsible for customer acquisition downstream.
"This is currently the mainstream model in the industry and also a compliant model," the person stated.
Through technological empowerment, small and medium-sized banks only need to pay software subscription fees or maintenance fees to technology companies to quickly launch gold accumulation functions on mobile banking. These "precious metal business platforms" connect the bank's core system with external gold quotes in real-time through API interfaces.
It is worth noting that while this model solves the access threshold, it also brings a series of hidden concerns.
The most significant challenge lies in system stability and quote delays; in extreme market conditions, a few seconds of delay may lead to substantial slippage losses for customers.
Moreover, the customer base drawn into the gold market by small and medium-sized banks often includes depositors with weaker risk recognition abilities, such as county residents, who view gold as a safe-haven "hard currency" and may overlook the leverage risks and volatility characteristics of derivative products.
Xin Feng learned that some technology companies have already set up circuit breaker mechanisms while optimizing their systems.
The aforementioned person revealed: "Our system's delay is comparable to that of large banks. If there is a massive fluctuation in a very short time, the system will not execute trades successfully; it may not be possible to buy in a rapidly rising market or sell in an extreme downturn, which to some extent avoids blind trading losses in extreme downturns."
However, the safety gained by "not executing trades" may also cause investors to lose their window for stop-loss or take-profit in extreme market conditions.
As the waves of gold price fluctuations crash against the shore, whether the technical system is robust enough and whether the resilience of the customer base is strong enough will be tested in the upcoming cycle.
It can be anticipated that in the current high-level fluctuations of gold prices, this differentiated pattern will continue:
State-owned large banks, leveraging their licenses and risk control advantages, are attempting to establish a more rational professional investor market, while small and medium-sized banks, supported by technology, are continuously expanding the boundaries of gold investment.
But regardless of the strategy, after the massive shock in February, all market participants should realize that the underlying nature of gold, besides its dazzling luster, also carries risks that have not disappeared