Since 1970s, gold has gradually lost its dominant position in the international monetary system, its functions of money has gradually weakened, and the original laws and regulations related to gold trading in major western countries have basically been abolished. Reforming the gold management system has become an objective requirement for the development of market economy. However, although the reform of gold management system was officially launched in 20001the State Council, at present, the People's Bank of China mainly monitors and manages the gold market according to the Regulations on the Administration of Gold and Silver in People's Republic of China (PRC) promulgated by the State Council 1983 and the Notice on Regulating the Retail Market of Gold Products promulgated by the People's Bank of China in 20001. These regulations are not suitable for the rapid development of China's current gold market, which leads to the unclear basis and responsibilities of the grassroots banks of the People's Bank of China for the supervision and management of the gold market.
In addition, according to the current regulations, the regulatory department of domestic gold and gold market is the People's Bank of China, while the regulatory department of personal gold investment and wealth management business of commercial banks is the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the regulatory department of gold futures is the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the regulatory department of general gold production and jewelry circulation is the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. This kind of multi-head management can easily lead to a vacuum in supervision and confusion in market management, thus affecting the supervision of the market by the regulatory authorities and further affecting the healthy development of the market.
(B) The gold market structure is not perfect
Compared with the mature international gold market, the China gold market has the characteristics of short establishment time and low openness, which limits the efficiency of the gold market. This paper will analyze the trading system structure and trading subject structure of the gold market.
1. The trading system structure of China gold market is not perfect.
The mature gold market system in the world can generally be divided into two parts, namely, the physical gold market and the derivative gold market. The physical gold market can be subdivided into wholesale market, intermediate market and retail market. The gold derivatives market includes gold futures, gold options, gold ETFs and other gold derivatives markets. According to the division of gold market trading system, there are two main problems in the trading system structure of China gold market.
(1) The physical gold market is not perfect.
Although China has formed a three-level real gold trading system consisting of Shanghai Gold Exchange, secondary gold trading center, bank counter and jewelry store, the establishment of secondary gold trading center is not perfect, which affects the allocation efficiency of gold resources. The main manifestations are as follows: on the one hand, China's secondary gold trading centers are scattered and narrow, mainly concentrated in the cities where member units are located, and spread to surrounding areas as the center; On the other hand, domestic secondary gold exchange centers mainly provide agency services at present, and the diversification of agency business is relatively small, which limits the expansion of agency business of secondary gold exchange centers.
(2) The lack of gold derivatives market.
In mature markets, the proportion of derivatives transactions accounts for more than 90% of the total transactions, but the China gold market has not yet developed this market, which directly leads to the limited market scale and the insufficient investment function of gold, thus affecting the efficiency of market resource allocation.
2. The trading subject structure of China gold market is not perfect.
The main body of the gold trading market mainly includes two parts: one is the "pawnbroker", which consists of large-scale gold production enterprises and demand enterprises; Another kind of subject is a large market maker with strong financial strength and systematic distribution network, which is generally composed of financial institutions such as commercial banks. Judging from the operation experience of the international gold market, the main structure of a mature gold market is usually the main position of market makers and investors. For example, the London gold market, its five major international gold markets offer gold as a reference standard for pricing in other countries. In London Gold and Silver Exchange (LBMA), half of its members are commercial banks and investment banks. However, at present, the trading subject of China's gold market leans to "pawnbroker" and there is a serious shortage of powerful large market makers, which affects the allocation efficiency of market resources. This can be reflected in the membership structure of Shanghai Gold Exchange.
As of June 2009, Shanghai Gold Exchange has 62 member units/kloc-0, of which 129 are mainly gold enterprises such as producers and processors, while there are only 25 financial members with investment nature, lacking brokers and market makers with active markets. Therefore, the Shanghai Gold Exchange only plays the role of the main channel for the allocation of commodity gold resources, while the narrow channel for the allocation of financial gold resources obviously affects its market efficiency.
In addition, the member units of Shanghai Gold Exchange do not cover all gold enterprises, and the existence of many off-site irregular gold trading markets composed of small and medium-sized enterprises also reduces the efficiency of resource allocation in the whole gold market. For these small and medium-sized enterprises, because they have no direct access to the market, they can only choose to sell gold to the People's Bank of China or make standard gold, and some non-standard gold will also flow into the black market through the gold exchange, which hinders the effective allocation of gold mineral resources.
(C) China gold price has not been integrated into the international gold market price system.
At present, the import and export trade of physical gold-gold raw materials and products in China still has strict import and export control. This control is successful in a sense. This is reflected in the following aspects: First, the China government has been encouraging gold production, and has adopted a policy of gradually relaxing residents' growing demand for gold. In recent years, domestic gold supply and demand have basically maintained a balance; Secondly, in the Shanghai gold spot market, state-owned joint-stock banks play an important role in self-management and agency business, and become de facto market makers, which constitutes the market basis for maintaining the pegged system of domestic gold spot prices and foreign gold prices.
On the other hand, this provision has also brought great negative consequences. China gold market has to passively accept the pricing mechanism of the international market, and the gold price in the international market can hardly reflect the real situation of gold production supply and demand in China, thus making China gold market a shadow market of the international gold market. When the gold market is really open to the outside world, if there is some imbalance between supply and demand in China's gold production, the market price can reflect this change more sensitively by relying on the international market to adjust the supply shortage or surplus in the domestic market.
Problems and Countermeasures of China Gold Market
Based on the above analysis of the existing problems in China gold market, this paper mainly puts forward the following suggestions:
(1) Establish and improve the laws and regulations of China's gold market and establish a gold self-regulatory organization.
At present, China lags behind in establishing and perfecting the laws and regulations of China gold market. It is undoubtedly an urgent task to clean up and abolish policies and regulations that obviously lag behind the actual development of the gold market and provide predictable policy protection for investors in the gold market.
It has been five years since the establishment of the gold market in China in 2003, but a perfect gold law has not yet been formulated, and a large number of gold market management laws and regulations, such as the Regulations on the Administration of Gold and Silver in People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Notice on Regulating the Retail Market of Gold Products, are still used, which obviously lags behind the actual development and is obviously unfavorable to standardizing the development of the gold market. Although this practice was a strategic interest plan at that time, it increased the uncertainty of the development of the gold market. The competent department of gold management should promptly clean up policies and regulations that are contrary to the direction of development and reform, and create a long-term development policy environment for the gold market.
The good news is. In the second half of 20 10, the People's Bank of China, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the China Securities Regulatory Commission jointly issued "Several Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Gold Market", stating that, firstly, the domestic gold market should be further liberalized, including allowing more banks to conduct international gold trading, and various measures to encourage the development of gold investment products were announced. Second, make clear the market development direction and make China gold more "financial". The Opinions particularly emphasize that the future development of the gold market should be based on improving the competitiveness of China's financial market. Shanghai Gold Exchange, Commercial Bank and Shanghai Futures Exchange will build a perfect gold market system, carry out gold leasing, forward and option business, and guide more financial institutions to participate in the gold market, which is also a statement on vigorously developing the financial status of the gold market. "Third, steadily promote the construction of laws and regulations in the gold market and improve the tax policy. In terms of tax policy, the gold tax policies of Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange are implemented according to the existing regulations, and the tax policies for commercial banks to invest in gold and gold business are studied and promoted. Expand the number of commercial banks with gold import and export qualifications, further develop the gold leasing market, and broaden the physical supply channels of gold. Fourth, diversify investment varieties and develop gold derivatives quoted in RMB, and the opinions require clear development orientation of the gold market. It is necessary to strengthen communication and coordination and establish a cooperation and coordination mechanism between Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange. It is necessary to intensify innovation and actively develop gold derivatives denominated in RMB. Enrich trading varieties, improve the gold market system, and promote the formation of a multi-level market system. Encourage and guide commercial banks to carry out gold derivatives transactions quoted in RMB.
In addition, the establishment of gold self-regulatory organizations and the continuous improvement of the self-regulatory management ability of the gold market will also greatly promote the standardized development of the gold market. According to the development of local gold market and referring to the management mode of foreign gold market, all localities should further strengthen the self-discipline management of gold market by establishing gold self-discipline associations attended by government agencies, gold production enterprises, gold sales enterprises and gold market inspection and management departments, standardize various operations in gold market transactions, guard against risks, and make up for the possible regulatory blind spots in multi-head supervision, so as to make the gold market develop healthily in spontaneous management.
(2) Relax market access restrictions and cultivate institutional investors.
On the basis of improving the pricing and working ability of commercial banks or large gold traders, China should actively develop gold institutional investors and expand the depth and breadth of the gold market.
At present, one of the main businesses of China commercial banks in the gold market is financial management on behalf of customers, that is, the agency business of on-site and off-site gold trading, which lacks systematic gold product design ability, pricing ability and market-making ability. Compared with large foreign gold traders, the breadth and depth of their participation in the gold market are still far behind.
In order to further enhance the effectiveness of the gold market price, so that China's gold price can be integrated into the international gold market price system, China should gradually break the current situation of the single structure of the gold market, encourage all kinds of investors to enter the market, and focus on cultivating and developing a group of influential domestic gold merchants, so as to make them become the leading force in China's gold market and gradually develop into influential China gold merchants in Asia. At the same time, several China gold investment funds should be established to make China's gold business bigger and stronger and become the backbone of China's gold market. Cultivating and developing the main market forces is the premise of China's integration into the international gold price system.
(3) Enriching gold investment tools.
Gold market is a sub-market of commodity market and an important investment market. In the future, market operators should be encouraged to develop diversified gold investment products and provide more investment and hedging tools.