Many small and medium-sized banks have been removing long-term deposit products from their shelves in large numbers.

Recently, many small and medium-sized banks have been making frequent adjustments to their deposits: not only have they concentrated on removing 3-year and 5-year fixed-term deposit products, some institutions have also explicitly canceled their 5-year fixed-term deposit products. At the same time, many banks have also simultaneously lowered deposit interest rates for various terms. Respondents have stated that the core purpose of this move by banks is to proactively optimize their liability structure and reduce liability costs. By reducing the size and cost of medium to long-term deposits, they can effectively alleviate operational pressure. More importantly, based on market expectations for interest rate cuts, banks can guide deposit behavior by adjusting product types or interest rate pricing, strengthening active management of passive liabilities and thus shortening average liability maturity dates and increasing repricing flexibility. In the future, it is expected that more small and medium-sized banks will follow suit in adjusting long-term deposit products. In early November, Inner Mongolia's Tuyouqi Mongolian Village and Town Bank was the first to announce the cancellation of 5-year fixed-term deposits starting from November 5, and also lowered interest rates for other term deposits. Among them, 1-year and 2-year rates were lowered by 5 basis points to 1.45% and 1.55% respectively, while the 3-year rate saw the largest reduction, down by 10 basis points to 1.85%, with the original 5-year fixed-term deposit rate of 1.9% showing as empty. The bank explicitly stated that this decision was made after considering the interest rate levels of peer institutions. Private banks have also joined the adjustment camp one after another. Many institutions such as Webank, Citic Bank, Huarui Bank, and Xinan Bank have removed the option for 5-year fixed-term deposits from their deposit products in their apps. Some banks have made even greater adjustments, removing 3-year fixed-term deposits altogether. For example, Beijing Zhongguancun Bank clearly stated in its interest rate adjustment announcement that both 3-year and 5-year fixed-term deposits were removed from their options.