Interbank deposit pricing once again draws industry attention; how to standardize fixed-term interest rates becomes the focus

Caixin: Since the market interest rate pricing self-regulation mechanism (hereinafter referred to as “self-regulation”) was optimized over a year ago to manage non-bank interbank deposit rates, some demand deposit pricing has decreased, achieving certain cost reduction effects. However, there have also been phenomena of “pressing down the gourd only to have it bounce back,” which has recently attracted attention and discussion.

Recently, Industrial Securities Research published a report reviewing the effects of the previous round of interbank demand deposit self-regulation and exploring possible future directions. Since the new self-regulation rules were released at the end of November 2024, data from the 2025 semi-annual reports show that the cost of interbank liabilities for listed national banks has decreased by about 30-40 basis points (BP), and total liability costs have decreased by about 3-4 BP. Regarding changes in bank liability structures, the average proportion of interbank deposits for listed national banks has decreased from about 10% to about 9%. Among them, state-owned large banks continue to regard interbank deposits as an important source of liabilities, increasing the proportion of fixed-term deposits and extending durations; most joint-stock banks have reduced the scale and proportion of interbank deposits, with the share of demand deposits increasing.