The Swiss gold refiner working to make Bank of China (Hong Kong)’s centenary celebrations that little bit special

Name: SCMP
Telephone: +852-2680-8888

BOCHK has commissioned three sizes of gold bar to mark the occasion. The heaviest is 1kg, which will go on sale from next month, while the two smaller sized ones have been available since April

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The distinctive image of the Bank of China Tower engraved on the commemorative 1kilo gold bars, being shown here by the bank’s head of treasury product division Winnie Cheung Wing-sze, to mark its 100th anniversary in Hong Kong. The bars are being produced by Swiss gold refiner PAMP, part of MKS PampGroup, and will go on sale from next month. Photo: David Wong

Enoch Yiu

Published: 8:29pm, 27 Sep 2017Updated: 11:03pm, 27 Sep 2017

The Swiss gold refiner responsible for minting the Bank of China (Hong Kong) centenary gold bar is already busy on its next Chinese order – bars with puppies on them, to celebrate the next year’s Year of the Dog – underlining just how important the Chinese gold market has become globally.

PAMP, part of MKS PampGroup, has been in business since 1977 and claims to be the first to put artistic images on small bullion bars, instead of the tradition of simply stamping them with makers’ marks and weights. It will also custom design bars to order.

“We have received a lot of orders for dog designs to celebrate the Year of the Dog,” said Marwan Shakarchi, chairman of MKS (Switzerland), at his office in Geneva.

Marwan Shakarchi, chairman MKS (Switzerland), which owns PAMP the gold refiner which has produced BOCHK’s centenary gold bars. Photo: Enoch Yiu.

The firm offers a full range of animal gold bars, depicting each of the 12 animals representing the Chinese Lunar calendar.

BOCHK also launched a banknote this week to celebrate its 100th birthday and commissioned Shakarchi’s company to design and make three sizes of bar to mark the occasion.