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Bank of China fined for losses after negative WTI price

  • Mercados: Crude oil
  • 07/12/20

The state-owned Bank of China (BoC) has been fined for customer losses from a crude futures linked product when prices fell into negative territory in April this year.

Chinese bank regulator the China banking and insurance regulatory commission (CBIRC) fined the BoC 50.5mn yuan ($7.7mn), with four managers and a trader in its global market department also reprimanded.

The BoC's terms for the crude futures linked product stated individual investors should pay 100pc margins to open a position, with the trading system automatically closing the position when margins fall lower than 20pc. But the mechanism failed to work when it settled against WTI crude futures, which closed on 20 April at a negative $37.63/bl for May delivery.

The BoC failed to take measures to protect investors from exposure to the crude market turmoil, with the contract terms misleading with an omission of risk management, the CBIRC said. It also ordered the BoC to fix the problem and apply strict supervision towards such relevant business.

Chinese authorities never make actual losses public. Some investors' claims of launching a lawsuit against the BoC were suppressed by the authorities.

Other Chinese banks including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Minsheng Bank had similar crude-linked financial products targeting low-threshold individual investors. But these banks rolled over the June contract five days before its settlement date. All the financial products in Chinese banks linked to crude and natural gas futures have been suspended up to now.


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