ING Vysya Bank enters gold coin retailing

ING Vysya Bank announced plans to sell 24-carat coins of up to 10 grams.

This marked the bank's foray into the gold coin retailing segment. 

The coins will be imported from Switzerland and be sold at the Bangalore-headquartered bank's 149 branches nationally, the bank announced.

The coins will be offered in denominations of five grams, 8 grams and 10 grams and will be sold based on international bullion rates, it said.

"Gold as an asset class is a key alternate investment avenue for individual investors and also acts as a natural hedge against other asset classes. We have been seeing tremendous demand for this product," said the bank's country head for retail banking Uday Sareen.

India is the highest consumer of the yellow metal, accounting for 20 percent of the world's market. According to the World Gold Council, the country imported 966 tonnes of gold in 2011.

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