A senior figure at the third-largest banking group in Malaysia claimed on Monday (July 13th) that he expects Gold Investment to continue on an upward curve.

Public Bank Berhad responded to the growing interest in the yellow metal by setting up a Gold Investment account in April last year, which has proved popular with its customers.

Wong Jee Seng, chief operating officer of the group, explained in an interview with the Star that he can see more investors choosing to put a proportion of their money into gold.

"The total value of gold traded from end-April 2008 until now is about RM500 million [$140.3 million]," he told the news provider.

"Based on the number of accounts still coming in, we believe gold investments will continue to be on the uptrend."

Those comments come after South Korea confirmed last week that it intends to increase its gold holdings when it assesses its foreign exchange reserves in the near future.

Although the country is ranked 56th globally in terms of the amount of gold it currently owns, a Bank of Korea official told Business Daily Asia that it should soon move up the list.

"The bank has begun to set up a plan to manage foreign exchange reserves for next year," said the official.

"It has also closely watched central banks in other nations and trends in the global gold market. Given the changing global financial environment, the bank's management plan is critical."

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