HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) gave Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) the green light to resume its gold-holding service last week.

The SBV's revised license meant the bank could revert to safeguarding clients' assets, as well as leasing lockers and deposit boxes to the lender's business lines.

A teller in ACB told Bizhub that the bank stopped keeping gold for new customers from July 3, following the SBV directive that all credit institutions could only keep gold for customers in accordance with regulations and licenses granted by SBV. They were to be able to continue offering the old service to customers.

Meanwhile, the market gold price increased sharply this morning (Tuesday July 23). At 11am, gold from the Saigon Jewellery Company (SJC) was listed at between 38.5-38.9 million ($1,833-1,852) on the firm's official website. At the same time on the Kitco.com trading floor, the selling price for gold rose to $1,335.3 per ounce ($1,607 a tael), putting gold prices in Viet Nam to $245 per tael higher than global prices.— VNS