Unshackling $21 Trillion: China's Risky Bid to Reform Banking
- Scrapping deposit-rate ceiling is milestone for industry
- China's banking assets now almost double those of U.S.
In 1984, China’s commercial banking system started with the establishment of the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. The People’s Bank of China transfered its commercial portfolio to ICBC and becomes the central bank.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
China’s lenders are now free to set interest rates for all of the nation’s 134 trillion yuan ($21 trillion) of bank deposits. That’s the idea, anyway, after the government scrapped the last remaining controls.
The move, effective on Saturday, is a milestone for a commercial banking industry that didn’t exist as recently as the early 1980s.