HANOI(BullionStreet): Keeping gold in your bank vault will not only beneficial but costly as banks were told to collect deposit fee for keeping.

Vietnam’s central bank asked all commercial banks and credit institutions in the country not to pay interest to customers who store gold bullion in banks but collect a fee as per deposit term.

Commercial banks and credit institutions must send their report on the service provided every fifth day of a month to the State Bank of Vietnam.

Most commercial banks in Ho Chi Minh City are offering gold keeping services at different fee levels ranging from 0.01 percent to 0.05 percent. The fee is very miniscule.

Economists noted that banks have stopped mobilizing gold from the public smoothly and peacefully, because the State Bank has set up a clear road map for the program, thus giving banks enough time to prepare for this.

However, contrary to all predictions that the gold price would decrease sharply once people cannot deposit gold to make profits any more, the gold price unexpected soared last week.

In Hanoi, SJC gold was traded at 47.24 – 47.39 million dong per tael earlier last week. The figures were 47.24 – 47.39 million dong per tael. As such, the SJC gold price has increased by 400,000 dong per tael.

Analysts attributed the gold price increase to the higher demand from banks, which need to buy more gold to balance their gold positions.

While the demand tends to increase, the supply remains limited because the State Bank does not grant quotas to import gold.

Since the State Bank of Vietnam has stated that SJC is the national gold brand, people now only accept to buy SJC brand gold, thus leading to the high increase in the demand for SJC gold and the short supply.