A rush by China's big Internet companies, such as Alibaba and Baidu, into online finance in the second half of 2013 is altering the landscape of China's financial sector in a dramatic and unprecedented way, industry insiders have said.
China's central bank on Sunday published a guideline on deposit certificates in the interbank market, another step towards fully floating interest rates.
China's central bank on Friday announced the launch of Loan Prime Rate (LPR), a new benchmark lending rate for commercial banks designed to make interest rates more market-oriented.
With a clearer outline and more concrete steps, China's financial reform is gaining traction amid calls to better facilitate the real economy and guard against risks.
The days of China's banks raking in easy fat profits have gone, for now, as the slowing economy and market-based financial reform squeeze profits and extend bad loans, semi-annual reports have shown.
China's interest rate reforms entered a new stage as central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said that the country is ready to free deposit interest rates.
The Australian dollar has slid to a half-month low after the Reserve Bank of Australia effectively nullified prospects of a further cut in rates, although the Australian central bank left the door ajar for further action in the wake of a key board meeting in Sydney.
China's removal of lending rate control is a key step in interest rate liberalization, but it has a principally symbolic meaning and its practical impact on bank behavior is limited, experts have said.
China's central bank announced a key move Friday to liberalize bank lending rates, underlining the government's resolve to push market reform to revitalize the slowing economy.
Economists and experts have lauded the central bank's removal of controls on bank lending rates as a critical step in reforming the nation's financial system.
Speculative money lies behind the rising yuan as the relatively high interest rates in China in comparison to other countries are attractive to investors.
Speculative money lies behind the rising yuan as the relatively high interest rates in China in comparison to other countries are attractive to investors.