Standard Bank jumps the gun on gold ETF

Standard Bank was forced to backtrack this week after announcing the imminent launch of Hong Kong’s second gold ETF before the product had received regulatory approval. The South African lender released a statement stating that it would be the metal provider, market-maker and participating dealer for the Value Gold ETF, an exchange traded fund “to be launched in Hong Kong in early October”. Rather embarrassingly, several hours later, the bank produced a fresh release noting that the p…