MELBOURNE: Some global banks briefly froze credit lines for Singapore metal traders last month after a unit of commodities giant Glencore uncovered fake warehousing receipts, people familiar with the matter said, reviving the spectre of a US$3bil scandal that rocked the trading world three years ago.
Although the impact has proved limited so far, the “forged” receipts for nickel stocks that Glencore’s Access World unit said it found still set alarm bells ringing – even though regulation and scrutiny have been tightened across the business since the 2014 Qingdao port scandal in China.