Banks - China: Weekly Wrap: Apr macro miss, May LPR on hold, and cross-border trading crackdown

Research evidence excerpt

Banks - China: Weekly Wrap: Apr macro miss, May LPR on hold, and cross-border trading crackdown

long-dated debts were sold off. 2026 household deposits grew less as maturities

Wenqing Han, CFA >>

reallocated; “Fixed income+” assets kept climbing as maturing depositors showed higher Research Analyst

risk appetite. Big banks sold ~RMB90bn government bonds and rotated to policy-bank Merrill+852 3508Lynch5032(Hong Kong)

bonds; foreign holdings of China-bond hit a 5+ year low. Financials: the regulator wenqing.han@bofa.com

pushed stable credit supply, optimized structure, improved quality and sustainability in Winnie Wu >>

micro/small lending. China will auction RMB300bn bank-capital special bonds in two ResearchMerrill LynchAnalyst(Hong Kong)

tranches on May 22 and Jun 12. Insurers’ equity allocation balance rose 2.7% QoQ in 1Q. +852 3508 3058

winnie.wu@bofa.com

Bank fines topped RMB800mn in 4.5 months. Dishonesty list rules were updated to a 3-

year management period, with possible early removal after 12M if conditions are met. EmmaResearchXuAnalyst>>

“Four pillars” rules were rolled out for insurance asset managers, and wealth managers Merrill Lynch (Hong Kong)

+852 3508 8165

cut fees, with some products lowering charges to 0. 40+ issuers delayed 2025 reports emma.xu@bofa.com

affecting >RMB120bn of debt. Jilin rural credit overhaul remained unfinished as an

executive was probed and tier-2 capital bonds missed coupon payments, and

Heilongjiang rural credit shake-up widened as the first 27 institutions were folded into

the reform plan. HK SFC tightened securities account-opening standards and added ABC: Agricultural Bank of China

extra measures for mainland investor accounts. Banks raised alarms on crude-oil funds. BOC: Bank of China