3South Africa’s Standard Bank, which is selling its UK-based markets division to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, has emerged as a potential buyer of Deutsche Bank’s seat in the global gold price-setting process, according to three banking industry sources.
三位银行业消息人士称，准备将英国市场部门出售给中国工商银行(ICBC)的南非标准银行(Standard Bank)，已成为德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)全球黄金定价席位的潜在买家。
Involvement in the London “fix”, as the global gold benchmark is known, was until recently considered prestigious among investment banks, if not particularly lucrative. But heightened regulatory scrutiny of all financial industry benchmarks in the wake of the Libor scandal has made participation in the gold benchmark much less attractive to western banks.
直到不久以前，参与设定全球黄金基准价“伦敦定价”(London fix)还被投行视为富有盛望的活动，即便不是特别有利可图。但在伦敦银行间同业拆借利率(Libor)丑闻爆发后，监管机构对所有金融行业基准加强了监督，使得参与制定金价基准对西方银行不再有那么大的吸引力。
Deutsche Bank said in January it was ending its involvement in the gold and silver fix, as part of wider withdrawal from commodity markets. The move followed an inquiry by German regulators into precious metals price setting. The four other banks who determine the gold price via a twice-daily conference call are HSBC, Barclays, Société Générale and Bank of Nova Scotia.
德意志银行今年1月表示，将退出金银价的制定，这是该行撤出大宗商品市场举措的一部分。此前德国监管机构对贵金属定价展开调查。还有其他4家银行通过每日两次的电话会议确定金价，它们是汇丰银行(HSBC)、巴克莱银行(Barclays)、法国兴业银行(Société Générale)和丰业银行(Bank of Nova Scotia)。
China last year became the world’s biggest consumer of gold and a banking source said ICBC’s investment in Standard Bank made it the “obvious candidate” to purchase Deutsche Bank’s seat. State-owned ICBC, the world’s largest bank by assets, has millions of customers in its retail gold business and its ambitions to raise its precious metals profile globally are well known in the sector.
中国去年成为世界最大的黄金消费国，一位银行业消息人士表示，中国工行对南非标准银行的投资，使其成为购买德意志银行席位的“明显候选者”。国有的工行是全球资产规模最大的银行，其黄金零售业务拥有数百万名客户，而它提高贵金属业务全球影响力的雄心在业界也是众所周知的。
“ICBC wants to become a gold market-maker and joining the fix through Standard Bank makes it easier for the industry to digest,” said a banking source in London. “It [ICBC] is not worried about Western regulators. This would be a big, cheap statement for them.”
“工行希望成为黄金做市商，通过标准银行加入定价机制，将使业界更易于接受这一点，”伦敦一名银行业消息人士表示，“工行不用担心西方监管机构。这对他们来说将是一个重大而廉价的宣言。”
The last time a gold fix seat was sold was in 2004 when Rothschild sold its position to Barclays for a reported $1m.
黄金定价席位上一次交易发生在2004年，当时罗斯柴尔德(Rothschild)据报道以100万美元将席位出售给巴克莱。