Chinese Bank to Buy Giant London Gold Vault

Do the Chinese know something about gold that you don't?

ICBC Standard Bank PLC, the world's largest bank, just announced that it is buying Barclays PLC’s precious-metals vault.

The vault, one of the largest in Europe, stores gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

“This is an exciting acquisition for the Bank,” said Mark Buncombe, head of commodities at ICBC. “This enables us to better execute on our strategy to become one of the largest Chinese banks in the precious metals market.”

Last week, ICBC Standard Bank became the first new bank in over a decade to join the London precious metals clearing system, joining banks such as Barclays, HSBC PLC, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and UBS Group AG.

In early April, ICBC said it would join the twice-daily electronic auctions that set the LBMA Gold Price benchmark. The Bank of China and China Construction Bank already help set this benchmark.

 -RW