China's biggest banks are cutting off regular people from trading gold, a sign the government wants tighter control over who can own it.

• Major Chinese banks — ICBC, Postal Savings Bank, Ping An, and China Guangfa — are shutting down paper gold trading for everyday customers.
• Chinese citizens using these banks to trade gold will lose access starting in late July.
• The official reason is protecting people from wild price swings after gold spiked and then dropped sharply.
• Banks also jacked up the collateral needed to trade gold to a record high, demanding more money down than the gold is even worth.
• The bigger story is a fight over what counts as money and who controls access to it.

Outlook: Expect China to keep steering regular buyers away from gold while the state tightens its grip on the market.