China scraps two-decade old loan-to-deposit ratio cap
Beijing, August 29
China today scrapped a two decade limit on the percentage of funds banks can lend out relative to deposits, state media reported.
China’s commercial banking law has since its enactment in 1975 stipulated that no more than 75 per cent of a bank’s deposits could be offered as loans, the official Xinhua news agency said.
But the standing committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) amended the law to remove the 75 per cent loan-to-deposit cap, Xinhua reported, with the change coming into force on October 1.
The NPC is China’s Communist Party-controlled legislature.The amendment comes after the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the central bank, announced on Tuesday it was cutting benchmark interest rates and would also reduce the amount of funds banks must keep on hand, seen as a bid to boost lending and support China’s faltering economy.
The PBoC also announced the elimination of a ceiling on interest rates for time deposits with a maturity of more than one year.
China has been taking steps to liberalise controls on interest rates, which experts see as a key part of further opening up the country’s financial system.