China is, reportedly, planning to launch a new nationwide deposit-insurance system as early as January 2015, in a bid to allow the banks in the country to freely compete for depositors.
People with knowledge of the matter were quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying that senior officials from the central bank’s branches across the country had gathered to discuss details for implementing the deposit-insurance plan.
As per the new plan, deposits up to CNY500,000 or $81,000 will be insured. In order to create a fund that will be managed by the central bank to pay for the insurance program, all banks in the country would be required to pay a fee according to the size of each bank’s deposit levels.
A People’s Bank of China (PBOC) official was quoted by the news publication as saying: "The plan will be announced very soon."
The new plan is being implemented as part of a liberalization of economic policies, and represents as a crucial economic reform under China President Xi Jinping.
With one of the largest bank-deposit bases in the world, Chinese bank deposits totaled CNY112trn as of the end of October 2014.