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【guide】many small and medium-sized banks collectively announced a reduction in deposit interest rates, with the highest reduction being 35 basis points

china fund news reporter anman

a new round of "interest rate cuts" among commercial banks has begun, with urban and rural commercial banks and village banks taking the lead this time.

on august 27, guilin national rural commercial bank announced that it would cut deposit interest rates that day by 10-35 basis points, with the medium- and long-term deposit rates being cut the most.

on the same day, yuzhou rural credit cooperative also issued an announcement to adjust the rmb deposit interest rate.

the day before, a number of small and medium-sized banks including lushan rural credit bank, changge rural commercial bank, leizhou rural commercial bank, xiaxian hedong village bank, and zhumadian rural commercial bank issued announcements stating that they would lower deposit interest rates by 10-35 basis points at the end of august or early september.

"this adjustment is mainly a follow-up to the interest rate adjustment actions of large state-owned banks. it also reflects the pressure on small and medium-sized banks to attract deposits and the current situation of low net interest margins in the banking industry. lowering deposit rates will help ease the interest margin pressure on banks, and it is also to stabilize the net interest margin to enhance the sustainability of supporting the real economy." zhao qingming, deputy director of the china huiguan information research institute, told a reporter from china fund news.

there have been multiple rounds of interest rate cuts this year.

since the beginning of this year, most small and medium-sized banks have experienced at least three rounds of deposit rate adjustments.

for example, on january 20, guilin bank issued an announcement to adjust the interest rates of individual and unit deposits starting from january 21. the adjustment covers different terms such as 3 months, 6 months, 2 years, 3 years, and 5 years, and is 20-55 basis points lower than before.

on february 20, guilin bank announced that it would adjust the interest rate of its five-year fixed deposit product starting from february 21. the bank's adjusted interest rate is 3.2%, compared to 3.35% before the adjustment.

on august 20, guilin bank announced that it would adjust its deposit interest rates from august 21. the adjusted five-year deposit interest rate for unit deposits is 2.6%, down 60 basis points from the previous period.

since the market-oriented reform of deposit interest rates, commercial banks have used a variety of methods to manage deposit interest rates, and the overall situation is "big banks take the lead and small banks follow."

according to a research report by guotai junan securities, the reduction in deposit rates is expected to ease the pressure on banks' net interest margins and increase the enthusiasm of finance to support the real economy.

in this year's semi-annual report, many banks stated that they will continue to reduce high-cost deposits in the second half of the year, regard settlement deposits as the key to promoting high-quality development of liabilities, and continue to lower deposit interest rates.

for example, the management of industrial bank stated at the 2024 interim performance briefing that "looking ahead to the second half of the year, the pressure on asset yields is still relatively large. on the liability side, industrial bank will lower the rmb deposit listing rate and the upper limit of the self-discipline mechanism in sync with other banks, and deposit costs are expected to be further reduced. overall, the overall interest margin of industrial bank will narrow in the second half of the year, but it is expected to be better than the budget target set at the beginning of the year."

looking ahead, industry insiders believe that there may still be room for bank deposit rates to be lowered. the monetary policy implementation report for the fourth quarter of 2023 released by the central bank stated that it will continue to deepen interest rate marketization reforms, further improve the formation mechanism of loan market quotation interest rates, give play to the role of the deposit interest rate marketization adjustment mechanism, and promote a steady decline in the overall financing cost of society.