Small and medium-sized banks in multiple regions have raised deposit interest rates to attract deposits.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day "double holidays" arrive one after another, small and medium-sized banks in many regions have once again set off a phased deposit-gathering boom. Some deposit products have seen their interest rates raised by as much as 55BP, while some private banks have reintroduced 5-year time deposits with the highest interest rate reaching 2.1%.

Reporters from Cailian Press noted that this round of deposit rate adjustments features certain seasonal characteristics. The end-of-quarter assessment overlaps with the capital flow window of the "double holidays", and some small and medium-sized banks attract savings funds by launching holiday-exclusive deposits and setting differentiated minimum deposit thresholds. At the same time, some private banks have re-launched long-term deposit products, with the interest rates of some term deposits rebounding to a certain extent.

Industry insiders pointed out that the phased increase of deposit interest rates by some small and medium-sized banks is not only driven by short-term factors such as end-of-quarter assessment and holiday capital flows, but also related to the adjustment of banks' liability structure and expectations of market interest rate trends. Against the backdrop of the overall downward trend of deposit interest rates, banks still need to seek a balance between liability costs, capital stability and deposit-absorbing demands.

Small and medium-sized banks in multiple regions raise interest rates temporarily, with some products seeing a 55BP increase

Recently, rural commercial banks in many regions have intensively launched "double holiday" exclusive time deposit products to attract personal savings funds through time-limited interest rate hikes, differentiated interest rates and tiered minimum deposit amounts.

On September 28, Zhaoqing Rural Commercial Bank announced that the two-year annualized interest rate of its "Double Holiday Exclusive Deposit" is up to 1.6%. Reporters from Cailian Press noted that this interest rate is 55BP higher than the publicly quoted interest rate of ordinary deposits of the same term published on the official website.

At the same time, Pingtan Rural Commercial Bank recently announced that in order to give back to customers, it will launch the "Double Holiday Exclusive Deposit" for a limited time, and the interest rate of time deposits with a term of one year or less will be increased by 5BP on the basis of the current interest rate. The announcement shows that the product covers three-month, six-month and one-year terms, with the adjusted annualized interest rates reaching a maximum of 1.1%, 1.3% and 1.4% respectively.

In addition, many small and medium-sized banks such as Sihui Rural Commercial Bank and Yangjiang Rural Commercial Bank have successively launched similar holiday-exclusive savings products. Among them, Sihui Rural Commercial Bank announced that it will start selling "National Day Exclusive" time deposits on September 30, with a 1-year interest rate of 1.65% and a minimum deposit of 100,000 yuan; a 3-year interest rate of 1.75% and the minimum deposit amount increased to 150,000 yuan.

It is worth noting that different from the previous "one-size-fits-all" simple increase in deposit interest rates, some banks in this round pay more attention to implementing a layered pricing strategy by setting differentiated minimum deposit thresholds.

Reporters from Cailian Press noted that Yangjiang Rural Commercial Bank recently announced the launch of the "Double Holiday" exclusive time deposit product "Yuenong e Deposit", which adopts a stepped interest rate model: the higher the deposit amount, the higher the corresponding interest rate. Specifically, this product is divided into two term grades: 1-year and 3-year. Among them, for the 1-year product, the interest rate for a minimum deposit of 10,000 yuan is 1.31%, the interest rate for a minimum deposit of 50,000 yuan is 1.41%, and the interest rate for a minimum deposit of 100,000 yuan reaches 1.45%; the corresponding interest rates for the 3-year product are 1.63%, 1.76% and 1.8% respectively.

"Around the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, factors such as residents' consumption and fund transfer may cause deposit fluctuations. For some small and medium-sized banks with relatively weak deposit bases, launching time-limited exclusive deposit products and moderately raising the interest rates of some term deposits will help stabilize the deposit scale in stages," a relevant person from a city commercial bank in East China explained to Cailian Press reporter today.

Regarding the fact that some small and medium-sized banks set different minimum deposit thresholds to link interest rate concessions with capital scale, the above-mentioned banking insider pointed out that this measure not only attracts new savings funds, but also helps guide customers to increase their deposit scale and optimize the liability structure.

Private banks restart long-term deposits, with some product interest rates returning to above 2%

In addition to local rural commercial banks launching holiday-exclusive deposits, some private banks have recently re-launched long-term time deposit products, and the interest rates of some products have rebounded to above 2%.

Reporters from Cailian Press noted that since September, many private banks such as Suning Bank, MYbank, XW Bank and Huatong Bank have re-launched 5-year time deposit products. Among them, Huatong Bank has re-launched 5-year time deposits with an annualized interest rate of 2.1% and a minimum deposit of 100,000 yuan. The WeChat mini-program of Hunan Sanxiang Bank shows that the current 2-year time deposit interest rate of the bank also reaches 2.0%.

In addition, in September, WeBank raised the 3-year time deposit interest rate from the previous 1.6% to 1.75%, and the interest rates of medium and long-term deposit products of some private banks showed a phased rebound.

Reporters from Cailian Press noted that the above phenomenon has also attracted industry attention recently. "The fact that some banks raise deposit interest rates against the trend or re-launch long-term deposit products may be related to their liability sources and capital cost management needs," an analyst in the banking sector of a securities firm told Cailian Press. Generally speaking, compared with national banks, local banks and private banks often face more challenges in deposit collection.

The September 29 research report from Everbright Securities Research believes that some small and medium-sized banks raise deposit interest rates against the trend, taking into account the stability and economy of medium and long-term liabilities. The restart of 5-year large-denomination certificate of deposit issuance by state-owned large banks and joint-stock banks, to the phased increase of deposit interest rates by local small and medium-sized banks, reflects the actual demand of banks to strengthen liability management under the background of changing market environment and deposit disintermediation.

According to the analysis of this institution, from the perspective of the price comparison effect of interest payment costs, considering the differences of different liability varieties in interest payment rate, stability and the driving effect on other businesses, the current pricing of medium and long-term general deposits is not "expensive". From the perspective of assessment indicator improvement and department assessment, general deposits have certain advantages over interbank liabilities in the assessment of regulatory indicators such as liquidity risk and interest rate risk.

In addition, Everbright Securities Research believes that from the perspective of interest rate trend expectation and market dynamic changes, banks' appropriate absorption of medium and long-term liabilities is a revision of the expectation of continuous downward interest rates, and small and medium-sized banks will also adjust their liability strategies according to their actual financing capabilities.

This article is from the official WeChat account "Cailian Press", written by Zou Juntao, and published with authorization from 36Kr.