Editor’s Note
The release of China’s first national service standard for gold trade-in marks a significant step toward formalizing this key retail sector, promising greater transparency and consistency for consumers and businesses alike.
Recently, the “Gold Trade-In Business Service Specification” group standard, led by the China Gold Association, was officially released. This is the first specialized service standard in China’s gold jewelry retail industry specifically targeting the trade-in business. It marks the entry of this important consumption model into a new phase of standardized and professional development.
Data from the World Gold Council shows that as of the end of November 2025, gold prices hit historical highs 50 times during the year, with a cumulative increase exceeding 60%. With the surge in demand for liquidity from existing gold holdings, trade-in has become a crucial segment of primary gold consumption, accounting for approximately 20% of the national primary gold consumption volume. However, due to the lack of unified regulations, consumers often face risks such as arbitrary price reductions and opaque information during transactions, constraining the industry’s healthy and orderly development.
The new standard comprises 8 chapters, establishing a closed-loop system of “basic definitions—core requirements—process specifications—supervision safeguards.” It provides comprehensive regulations on service principles, enterprise qualifications and operational management requirements, service personnel, premises and equipment, service content and processes, and supervision mechanisms. Key requirements include: enterprises must possess legal qualifications and fulfill anti-money laundering obligations; practitioners must undergo professional training and be certified before they can work; the gold testing process implements a “full-process monitoring + customer on-site” system, where destructive testing requires prior consumer consent, and test results must be accompanied by verifiable information such as gold content, quality, loss, and valuation amount; during consultation, service information such as old gold acceptance standards, service processes, and fee items must be proactively disclosed.
Li Baocheng, a researcher at the Institute of Finance, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that this standard establishes a nationwide, systematic regulation for this active yet previously order-lacking market for the first time. It will build consumer trust through standardized operations and transparent services, purify the market environment, enhance industry credibility, and also facilitate the circulation loop from old gold recycling to new product sales, stimulating consumption vitality and promoting green consumption.
Amid the booming gold trading market, top-level design and regulatory oversight are strengthening in coordination. In August 2025, the People’s Bank of China issued the “Administrative Measures for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing for Precious Metals and Jewelry Industry Institutions”; at the end of October, the “Announcement by the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration on Tax Policies Related to Gold” was released, aiming to distinguish between investment and non-investment uses of gold and crack down on grey-area transactions in tax-advantaged regions. Sun Libin, a professor of finance at Nankai University, analyzed that the new tax policy has narrowed the space for the private market, providing a feasible basis for enterprise qualification certification, coupled with requirements such as tax compliance and anti-money laundering obligations, jointly injecting institutional vitality into regulating the gold market order and promoting high-quality industry development.
Liu Yanhong, a member of the China Gold Association’s Board of Directors and Supervisor, and a member of the National Gold Standardization Technical Committee, believes that the standard, with integrity, transparency, and compliance at its core, is dedicated to building a multi-governance system of “policy guidance + standard constraints + enterprise self-discipline + consumer supervision.”
The effectiveness of the standard hinges on its practical implementation.
Li Baocheng said.