Small and medium-sized banks are cutting interest rates intensively.

Following the collective reduction of deposit benchmark interest rates by the six major state-owned banks and joint-stock banks, city commercial banks, agricultural and rural cooperative banks in many parts of the country have also taken action recently to announce a series of deposit rate cuts. Among city commercial banks, starting from May 26th, Nanjing Bank will reduce its one-year, two-year, three-year, and five-year RMB fixed deposit rates to 1.15%, 1.25%, 1.35%, and 1.35% respectively; Jiangsu Bank will adjust theirs to 1.05%, 1.25%, 1.45%, and 1.45%; and Ningbo Bank will change theirs to 1.25%, 1.3%, 1.55%, and 1.6%. As for agricultural and rural cooperative banks, the Karamay Rural Commercial Bank in Xinjiang has adjusted its RMB deposit benchmark interest rates starting from May 28th, with significant reductions in various types of personal and corporate fixed deposit rates, up to 60 basis points. Specifically, the three-year and five-year personal and corporate fixed deposit rates were reduced by 50 and 45 basis points to 1.45% and 1.5%, respectively, while the agreed deposit rates were reduced from 1.1% to 0.5%. In terms of rural cooperative banks, on May 30th, Jilin Changyi Yuyin Rural Cooperative Bank announced that it would adjust its deposit benchmark interest rates starting from June 1, 2025. This adjustment affects one-day notice deposits, seven-day notice deposits, three-month fixed deposits, six-month fixed deposits, one-year fixed deposits, two-year fixed deposits, and three-year fixed deposits. Specifically, the three-year fixed deposit rate was reduced by 0.1 percentage points to 2.25%, while the rates for other deposit terms were reduced by 0.05 percentage points.