The industry believes that after the international oil price plummeted to negative value, many customers of BOC Crude Oil Bao suffered from "short positions". These banks actively pressed the "pause" button, which can effectively prevent similar risks, and it also shows that the banking industry may be conducting a comprehensive self-examination of account commodity transactions. In the future, the regulatory authorities will have stricter requirements and higher standards for banks to carry out derivatives-related business.
Bank of China took the lead in announcing the suspension of new positions.
In the early morning of April 2 1 Beijing time, the price of American WTI05 crude oil futures contract plummeted to -40.32 USD/barrel on the last trading day, and the final settlement price was -37.63 USD/barrel. China Bank's crude oil products linked to this contract closed positions for investors at this price, resulting in long positions in the client's principal.
Zero overnight, but also owed a large deposit to the Bank of China.
On April 22, Bank of China issued the Announcement on the Recent Settlement and Trading Arrangements of the Bank's Crude Oil Treasure Business, saying that in view of the current market risks and delivery risks, the new trading of customers' crude oil treasures (including American Oil and British Oil) will be suspended from that day, and the liquidation transactions of customers holding positions will not be affected.
The other five banks quickly followed suit.
In fact, six domestic banks have launched account crude oil business. In addition to Bank of China, there are ICBC, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Minsheng and Pudong Development Bank. Although these banks are not in danger of losing their deposits and paying back their losses, they were warned by the "crude oil treasure" incident and quickly followed the example of China Bank and announced their closure. These banks all said that such a decision was made out of consideration of risk factors such as price and liquidity in the international crude oil market.
On April 22nd, CCB announced that, in view of the current price risk and liquidity risk, according to the relevant regulations, the monthly contracts for Brent crude oil and WTI crude oil in the account will be suspended from the date of announcement, and the liquidation of customers will not be affected.
On the same day, CCB also issued the Prompt Announcement on WTI2006 Contract Trading Rules for Account Commodity Trading Business. According to the announcement, the bank has the right to adjust the maturity processing time and processing rules of this contract, and settle the customers' open positions due in cash; Customers are advised to pay full attention to the risk of recent price fluctuation in the crude oil market, and may choose to take the initiative to close their positions before the contract expires.
On April 22, Bank of Communications also reminded customers of risks, and said that due to abnormal situations in the international market (including but not limited to the interruption of quotations in the international market or sudden and large price fluctuations), Bank of Communications has the right to suspend trading or adjust quotations.
The next day, Bank of Communications and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank officially announced that they would suspend the opening of account crude oil business. Bank of Communications said that in view of the current price risk and liquidity risk in the crude oil market, the new account opening transaction of book-entry crude oil products will be suspended, and the flat trading of existing customers will not be affected. PUFA Announcement: In view of the current price risk and liquidity risk in the crude oil market, starting from 8: 00 am on April 24, 2020, the opening transaction of crude oil products in the account will be suspended (the market price and the opening transaction of pending orders cannot be concluded), and the contract cannot be extended after expiration; The clearing transactions of customers with existing positions are not affected.
On April 25th, Minsheng Bank also announced that in view of the current price risk and liquidity risk, the opening transactions of account energy North American crude oil and international crude oil will be suspended from 9: 00 am on April 27th, and the closing transactions of position customers will not be affected.
It is worth noting that although all new positions have been suspended, the treatment of customers who have already held positions is not completely consistent. Among them, CCB clearly stated that it has the right to adjust the maturity processing time and processing rules of contracts in 2006, and settle customers' open contracts due in cash; Pufa made it clear to customers that the contract could not be renewed after its expiration. However, according to ICBC regulations, the pre-set transfer-in date of position customers and the adjustment of continuous product share will not be affected.
Commodity trading in bank accounts is not just crude oil.
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the trading patterns of account commodities launched by domestic banks are basically similar, and the business content is not limited to account crude oil.
CCB official website shows that account commodities include account energy, account base metals and account agricultural products. Account energy includes account crude oil WTI and account crude oil Brent. , account base metal including account copper, etc. And account agricultural products include account soybeans. Account crude oil WTI price refers to the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) West Texas Light Crude Oil (WTI) futures price, and account crude oil Brent price refers to ice Brent crude oil or the New York Mercantile Exchange Brent crude oil futures price; The soybean price in the account refers to the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soybean futures contract quotation; Account copper price refers to COMEX's copper futures price.
The product design and trading rules of all banks are similar. For example, they all take the way of only recording shares and not extracting physical objects. There are two currencies, RMB and USD, T+0 transactions. Customers get the spread income by buying first and then selling and closing positions (bullish) or selling first and then closing positions (bearish). Customers can open accounts and trade through online banking, mobile banking and other electronic channels.
However, there are still obvious differences between banks in the details of investment starting point and trading point. For example, the starting point of crude oil in some bank accounts is 1 barrel, and in some banks it is 0. 1 barrel. The trading spreads are quite different, and there are differences between different varieties of the same bank. In some banks, the spread of most varieties is stable at 1%, and in some banks, some varieties will be as high as 5%.
In particular, the choice of relocation date varies from bank to bank. Bank of China stipulated that the warehouse should be moved one day before the last trading day of the contract, and other banks chose to move the warehouse 5-6 days in advance. Because of this, only the Bank of China crude oil treasure was "encircled" this time, and the rest of the banks escaped.
ICBC also closed its natural gas, copper and soybean accounts.
At present, other banks have only suspended the opening of crude oil accounts, and only ICBC has expanded its scope to natural gas accounts, copper accounts and soybean accounts.
Some insiders believe that ICBC, as the earliest bank in China to launch account crude oil trading, is relatively cautious about account commodity trading business. In mid-March, the international crude oil market price fluctuated violently, and the oil price fell to "mineral water price". More and more investors took the opportunity to bargain-hunting, only to find that ICBC had suspended the purchase of RMB accounts at that time.
Since March of 13, ICBC APP has suspended the trading of two consecutive products, namely North American crude oil and international crude oil, in RMB account, and the liquidation transaction and crude oil investment in US dollar account are not affected. When the customer confirms the order, ICBC APP will prompt: "As the products you purchased have reached the upper limit of the total amount of RMB account and account foreign exchange transactions of our bank, you can't buy new positions (long positions) at present, and the liquidation will not be affected; After the total net transaction amount returns to the limit, you will be able to buy new positions again. "
ICBC's manual customer service said that because the total transaction amount reached the upper limit, crude oil, natural gas, soybeans and foreign exchange in RMB accounts could not be opened, but customers could trade by selling first and then buying.
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that some customers were killed by "negative oil prices" because they could not do more bargain hunting at ICBC at that time.
Is account crude oil trading a business innovation or a regulatory loophole?
After the "Crude Oil Treasure" exploded, many investors suffered heavy losses and are negotiating with the Bank of China and relevant departments. At present, there is no final result on how to deal with the incident, but people in the industry are already examining the potential risks of such account commodity transactions launched by banks.
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that many investors' doubts about BOC crude oil treasure include: whether to sell it to investors with mismatched risks; Whether it is wealth management or futures; Whether it is supervised by CBRC or CSRC; Legal or not. These problems also apply to other banks that carry out this kind of business.
Products with different risks match investors with different risk tolerance. In recent years, this system has been perfected in high-risk investment fields such as stocks, futures and private equity funds, but it seems that it has not been fully considered for banks characterized by safety and stability.
Crude oil treasure linked to overseas crude oil futures contracts is risky and requires high professional financial knowledge, which is not suitable for ordinary investors. However, under the "packaging" of banks, such products can participate as low as tens of yuan, and there is no leverage. Both banks and investors feel that the risk is controllable, and the risk level is only R3, so balanced investors can participate. But in fact, the risk of this crude treasure is greater than R5. Therefore, some "crude oil treasure" customers don't even know how much they are short, and they are completely operating with the mentality of buying stocks.
In fact, with the fluctuation of international oil prices, crude oil futures have been exposed to the possibility of holding positions since the rules of overseas exchanges were revised to allow negative values, but China Bank failed to adjust the rules in time, which ordinary investors dare not think about. Other banks just happened to move their positions in advance, avoiding a disaster, but before that, like Bank of China, there was no special risk warning for negative oil prices.
In addition, from the entry threshold, these account commodity transactions have the operation of decomposing the international futures standard marketing unit. For example, the minimum trading unit of crude oil futures contracts in the international market is 1000 barrels, while the 1 hand of domestic banks is 1 barrel, which can trade 0. 1 barrel. Some regulators said that the design principles of these products actually originated from the foreign exchange settlement and sale business launched by banks according to the actual needs of customers, and then extended to precious metals, bulk commodities and other fields, but gradually deviated from the business areas that banks are most familiar with.
Whether crude oil insurance should be supervised by CBRC or CSRC is also a difficult question to answer. If it is regarded as participating in overseas futures trading, it should be supervised by the CSRC in conjunction with the Ministry of Commerce, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the foreign exchange bureau and other departments, but there is no leverage, which is still different from ordinary futures. These investors do not directly trade on overseas futures exchanges; If it is regarded as a bank wealth management product, it should be supervised by the CBRC, but what it actually does is the transaction of overseas futures contracts, which is completely different from financial management on behalf of customers.
Therefore, some insiders pointed out that the account commodity transactions launched by such banks are still in the gray area of supervision. Because of this, there are many loopholes that need to be repaired and improved by banks and regulatory authorities.