The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has taken the first step in making gold trading available for foreign currency accounts, which is also know as "paper gold" business.

People only need to open multi-currency current accounts to make exchanges between US dollar and gold (ounce). Through this, investors can profit from the fluctuations of international gold prices.

Similar with "paper gold", the amount of gold held by individuals is only recorded in their accounts and they cannot withdraw physical gold. Investors therefore can save the costs for the storage, transportation and evaluation of gold.

Since the "paper gold" businesses provided by the Bank of China and the Bank of Construction are limited to Renminbi accounts, analysts hold that ICBC's offer this time is a new channel for those individual investors willing to hold foreign currencies.

With the energy price hikes and fluctuations of US dollar as well as pouring hedge funds in recent years, the international gold prices has been growing. The price on Dec. 7 hit a 23-year high of US$508/oz.

By People's Daily Online