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The 10 Longest-Established Brokers on the Hong Kong Gold Exchange

The ten longest-serving broker members of the Hong Kong Gold Exchange (HKGX), ranked by opening date from 1973 and filtered so only firms with a clean status label appear. Six of the ten also hold a statutory SFC, FCA or ASIC licence.

Updated August 2026

Ten brokers hold the longest unbroken records on Hong Kong's gold and silver exchange, and the oldest of them has been trading bullion since 1973. This page ranks those ten by how long each has operated, chosen from the 29 exchange members that have run for at least a decade and carry a clean status on WIKILIX. It is a ranking by longevity, not by size or rating, so a firm's staying power counts here in a way its score does not.

Every name below is headquartered in Hong Kong and accredited by the Hong Kong Gold Exchange (HKGX), the trading arm of the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society, the city's only market for physical gold and silver and an institution more than a century old. Six of the ten also answer to a top-tier statutory regulator. For most that means the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong; Emperor Financial Services adds the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, and Hantec Bullion adds the Australian regulator ASIC. The remaining four hold the exchange seat and nothing else.

#BrokerTrading sinceAlso licensed byScore
1EBSI (China Everbright Securities Int'l)1973SFC62.8
2ACU Bullion1975SFC57.1
3EFSG (Emperor Financial Services)1978FCA, SFC62.9
4Plotio Global Financial1983ASIC, ADGM43.6
5Hantec Bullion1990FCA, ASIC68.2
6Henfin (Kam Cheong Financial)1990Gold exchange only16.2
7First Gold (First Asia Merchants Bullion)1991Gold exchange only29.6
8Grand Finance Group1992Gold exchange only16.2
9WB Corporation1996Gold exchange only28.6
10Wing Fung Financial Group1999SFC64.0

The table runs oldest to newest. EBSI, the Hong Kong arm of China Everbright Securities, opened in 1973 and pairs its exchange membership with an SFC licence, scoring 62.8. Hantec Bullion, trading since 1990, carries the highest score on the list at 68.2 and holds FCA and ASIC registrations alongside its gold seat. Wing Fung Financial Group, the youngest of the ten at a 1999 start, is SFC licensed and scores 64. All ten opened before the year 2000, and four have run since the 1980s or earlier.

What a seat on Hong Kong's gold exchange actually buys

Accreditation by the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society lets a firm trade physical gold and silver on a floor run under the exchange's own rulebook. It is a membership rather than a national financial licence, and on its own it says little about how a firm holds client money or sets margin. That is why the second credential matters so much. When a member such as EFSG, trading since 1978, also answers to the SFC and the FCA, a client has a statutory regulator to escalate to as well as the exchange. When a member holds the seat alone, as Henfin and Grand Finance Group do, oversight stops at the gold market's own rules.

Longevity earns its place on the ranking because it is tested, not claimed. A house that has settled gold contracts through the 2008 crash and the 2020 surge in prices has met conditions a two-year-old brand never has. Even so, a long history and a high rating are different things. Scores across these ten run from 16.2 to 68.2, and Henfin has traded since 1990 while still sitting near the bottom of that range, so the order here rewards years survived and nothing else.

What this list leaves out

It says nothing about dealing costs or the spread each firm quotes on gold, and nothing about whether you would be trading deliverable metal or a cash-settled contract. It does not tell you whether a member will accept a client from your country, because a firm's exchange seat and its home licences are separate from who it is allowed to onboard, and only its own account terms settle that. A long record is not a clean bill of health either: one older member, Success Finance, carries a suspicious-clone flag and was kept off this list for it.

Before funding an account with any bullion member, a handful of checks specific to this market are worth the time:

  • Confirm the firm's membership is still current on the exchange's own register, since a seat can lapse.
  • Check whether it holds a statutory licence beyond the exchange, and name the authority before you rely on it.
  • Ask whether your positions are physically deliverable gold or cash-settled contracts.
  • Read how client funds are held, because an exchange seat alone does not force account segregation.

This ranking is pinned to each firm's opening date, so it barely moves. A member drops off only if its recorded status changes, and a newer firm cannot appear here until it too has traded for a decade. WIKILIX rechecks the membership and licence records behind the list on a regular cycle, and the scores shown can shift between visits even when the order holds.

If you want the strongest members rather than the oldest, two neighbouring rankings sort Hong Kong firms by overall score: the top SFC regulated brokers and the highest rated brokers based in Hong Kong. For the same longevity test applied to Hong Kong's statutory securities regulator, see the longest-established SFC regulated brokers. To weigh a gold member against a mainland derivatives venue, compare the longest-established CFFEX members.

Treat this page as a place to start your own checks, not as a recommendation. A gold exchange seat and thirty years of history tell you a firm has lasted; they do not tell you it fits how you trade, and confirming a current licence on the regulator's own register is still the step that protects your money.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions

Answers from the Wikilix research team about this ranking.

Most Popular Questions
A longer record is evidence, not a guarantee. A firm that has cleared gold trades since the 1970s or 1980s has run through market stress that a new brand has not, which is worth weighing. But safety also rests on a current statutory licence and on how client funds are held, neither of which longevity proves. One long-running member here was even excluded for a clone warning.
It runs Hong Kong's only market for trading physical gold and silver, and has done so for more than a century. Firms accredited by it can deal on its floor under its rules, which is the credential every broker on this page shares. It oversees trading on the exchange rather than licensing firms nationally, so members often hold a separate statutory licence as well.
This list cannot tell you. It ranks firms by their exchange membership and how long they have traded, not by where they accept clients from, and those are separate questions. A firm's gold exchange seat and its home licences say nothing about whether it will onboard someone in your jurisdiction. Only the broker's own account terms answer that, so check them before you apply.
Because this ranking orders firms by age, not by rating, and the two do not always agree. Henfin has been an exchange member since 1990 yet scores 16.2, near the bottom of the range on this page, while Hantec Bullion, which also dates to 1990, scores 68.2. A long history shows a firm has survived; it does not on its own lift its overall score.
Six of the ten do. EBSI, ACU and Wing Fung hold a Securities and Futures Commission licence in Hong Kong; EFSG adds the UK's FCA; Hantec Bullion holds both the FCA and Australia's ASIC; and Plotio holds ASIC among several registrations. Henfin, First Gold, Grand Finance Group and WB Corporation are accredited by the gold exchange only.
No. A seat on the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society lets a firm trade physical gold and silver under the exchange's own rules, but it is not a national licence and does not by itself govern how the firm holds your money. Six of the ten firms here also hold a statutory licence; the other four hold the exchange seat alone.
EBSI, the Hong Kong arm of China Everbright Securities, is the oldest on this list, trading since 1973. It holds both an exchange seat and a licence from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission, and it scores 62.8 on WIKILIX. That mix of a long record and a statutory licence is what places it at the top of the ranking by age.
Twenty-nine members of the exchange have operated for at least ten years, and 27 of them carry a clean status on WIKILIX. This page ranks the ten oldest of those clean-status firms, running from EBSI, which opened in 1973, to Wing Fung Financial Group, which started in 1999. The two members left out both carry a warning flag.
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