The "0.03% daily interest rate" trick has come to an end, and the maximum annualized personal loan interest rate of the four major state-owned banks is only 6%.

Since August this year, the *Regulations on the Explicit Disclosure of Comprehensive Financing Costs for Personal Loan Business* (hereinafter referred to as the "new personal loan regulation") has been officially implemented, ushering in an era of "clearly marked prices" in the personal loan market. Along with the official implementation of the policy, a number of institutions including banks, consumer finance companies, and micro-credit companies have successively issued announcements to publicly disclose the upper limit of comprehensive financing costs for personal loans.

This also means that the past vague promotional slogans on lending platforms such as "daily interest of 0.03%" and "monthly interest rate of 0.8%" will be completely eliminated, and all institutions must explicitly state and convert the comprehensive financing cost of personal loans into annualized rates.

According to the sorting out by Time Finance, judging from the currently announced interest rate ceilings, the four major state-owned banks have the lowest interest rate levels, with the upper limit of annualized interest rates for both consumer loans and operating loans at 6%, the lowest in the entire industry; the pricing of national joint-stock banks is slightly differentiated, mostly at 12%; the upper limits for small and medium-sized banks and consumer finance companies are mostly 24%.

In the view of industry insiders, after the implementation of the new personal loan regulation, the loan cost has been "transparentized", which is a major positive for protecting the rights and interests of borrowers. Su Xiaorui, a senior researcher at Suxu Research, said in an interview with Time Finance that for borrowers, when signing a loan agreement, they must carefully read the *Comprehensive Financing Cost Explicit Statement*, and in offline scenarios, they should not trust the verbal statements of sales personnel, but take the written content as the standard.

"For users with existing loans, they need to pay attention to the principle of 'separation of old and new policies', understand that the old loan contracts will not be affected, and the repayment obligations remain unchanged. In addition, they should also be alert to false information such as 'the loan has been quietly settled and no further repayment is required', and guard against illegal elements such as illegal intermediaries and rights protection agencies that harass the market and infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of users," Su Xiaorui pointed out.

The upper limit of annualized interest rate of the four major banks is as low as 6%

According to the data recently disclosed by various parties, the upper limit of annualized interest rates for personal consumer loans and operating loans of the four major banks, namely Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, and China Construction Bank, is 6%, while the upper limits of consumer loans and operating loans of Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China are relatively higher, at 12%.

However, in terms of personal housing loans, the six major state-owned banks have the same upper limit standard: the upper limit of annualized interest rate for loans with a term of 5 years or less is 1-year LPR + 0.5%, and the upper limit of annualized interest rate for loans with a term of more than 5 years is LPR for a term of more than 5 years + 0.5%.

Not only the major state-owned banks, but there are also differences in pricing among the 12 national joint-stock banks. Among them, the upper limits of consumer loans and operating loans of joint-stock banks such as China Merchants Bank, China CITIC Bank, and Industrial Bank are all 12%, and the upper limit of cooperative internet loans is 24%.

Some banks have relatively high pricing. For example, the upper limit of annualized interest rate of personal consumer loans (excluding credit card loans) of Ping An Bank is 18.5%, the upper limit of annualized interest rate of personal operating loans is 20%, and the upper limit of annualized interest rate of personal auto loans is 23.99%. Some banks have relatively low upper limits for operating loans. For example, the annualized interest rate of personal operating loans of China Everbright Bank is 8%; the upper limit of annualized interest rate of personal operating loans (excluding cooperative loans) of Hua Xia Bank is 10%.

For small and medium-sized banks and consumer finance companies, the upper limit of annualized interest rate is mostly 24%, which is also the ceiling of single loan interest rate set by the regulator. Some institutions have given more detailed ranges. Taking Haier Consumer Finance as an example, according to its disclosure, the comprehensive annualized interest rate of self-paid personal consumer loans issued by the company ranges from 3.2% to 24%, subject to the final approval result; the comprehensive annualized interest rate of entrusted payment personal consumer loans ranges from interest-free to 24%, subject to the final approval result.

Full transparency of personal interest and fees

Industry insiders believe that the stepped and layered pattern of credit interest rates is an important sign that the credit market is maturing and becoming standardized. Banking institutions formulate customer group strategies based on their own resource endowments, and launch refined operations for target customer groups.

Su Xiaorui explained to Time Finance that after the implementation of the new personal loan regulation, the publicly announced interest rate ceilings actually correspond to the customer group interest rate levels of different banks. The lower price is positioned for the mass high-quality customers in the market, and the near-prime and long-tail customers are covered by higher interest rates to offset risks.

Judging from the financial reports of listed banks, the major state-owned banks have already pushed interest rates to a low level by virtue of their capital cost advantages. According to the 2025 annual report data of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, as of the end of 2025, the average return on personal loans of the bank was 2.99%, the lowest among the six major state-owned banks; the average return on personal loans of Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, and Postal Savings Bank of China was 3.17%, 3.12%, 3.15%, 3.15%, and 3.49% respectively.

In recent years, against the background of the highly involuted personal credit business market, the personal loan business of major institutions is generally facing pressure, and the retail end has also become a "weak link" in asset quality. The new personal loan regulation clearly requires institutions to fully display all the cost details that borrowers need to bear in the loan application process, covering both online and offline channels simultaneously, which is of landmark significance for promoting the transparency of interest and fees and standardized competition in the personal loan market. When all costs are forced to be exposed to the sun, high-interest products, hidden charges and other phenomena will have nowhere to hide.

However, Su Xiaorui pointed out to Time Finance that after the implementation of the policy, there are still difficulties for all entities to comply. "First of all, the system transformation is complicated. Online scenarios need to embed mandatory pop-ups and mandatory reading links in the online application process, and offline scenarios need to update contract templates, which will indeed pose challenges for institutions with relatively weak technical capabilities; in addition, the situation of loan-aiding institutions is more complex, which requires not only considering the compliant charging path under the new regulation, but also considering how to effectively connect with licensed institutional partners, requiring all parties to cooperate fully at multiple levels such as systems and channels," Su Xiaorui said.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Time Finance APP" (ID: tf-app), the author is Zhang Xinying, and it is published with authorization from 36Kr.