Bank deposits in China: posted rates, types, and ID rules

Two of China’s largest banks post the same deposit rates, and on the day I read them the tables matched line for line. Demand deposits pay 0.05 per cent a year. A one-year lump-sum term deposit pays 0.95 per cent, three years 1.25, five years 1.30 (Bank of China, ICBC, both pages dated 2025-05-20, read 2026-10-13).

A branch posts that table, and the rate a depositor ends up with is a second number. The same bank publishes both: on 2026-07-01 Bank of China issued a personal certificate of deposit paying 1.10 per cent for one year, against the 0.95 per cent it posts for that term (issue announcement, dated 2026-07-01).

The products, and the rules that name them

Article 16 of the Regulation on Savings Management lists the savings products a bank may sell (State Council Decree No. 107 of 1992, issued 1992-12-11, in force 1993-03-01, revised 2011-01-08); the central bank’s rules for putting it into practice give the opening amount and the tenors (PBOC, Yinfa 1993 No. 7, issued 1993-01-14).

The mechanics differ more than the names. A recurring deposit takes a fixed monthly amount; a missed month can be made up next month, and amounts paid after an unmade-up missed month earn the demand rate at maturity (Bank of China). A notice deposit pays notice rates only if the withdrawal was announced first, and five listed situations fall back to the demand rate, among them withdrawing without notice (Notice Deposit Rules, Articles 9 and 10).

The posted table

Per cent a year, from each bank’s posted page (Bank of China, ICBC, both dated 2025-05-20, read 2026-10-13); the benchmark column is the central bank’s table, last updated 2015-10-24 (PBOC). Neither bank is ranked here.

The benchmark is a reference, not a ceiling

PBOC’s benchmark table is still published, filed under historical data. Its last entry is dated 2015-10-24: demand 0.35, three months 1.10, six months 1.30, one year 1.50, two years 2.10, three years 2.75, and no five-year figure, because the central bank stopped publishing that tenor on 2014-11-22 (PBOC, read 2026-10-13). The same decision removed the ceiling: the announcement of 2015-10-23 cut the one-year benchmark to 1.5 per cent and ended the floating limit on deposit rates for commercial banks from 2015-10-24 (PBOC, 2015-10-23).

A self-discipline mechanism replaced the ceiling. Per the central bank: in June 2021 the upper limit changed from a multiple of the benchmark to a spread added to it; in April 2022 members were steered to reference the 10-year government bond yield and the one-year loan prime rate; in mid-September 2022 the large state banks cut, and many banks changed a posted rate for the first time since October 2015 (PBOC, 深入推进利率市场化改革, page text citing August 2022 figures, read 2026-10-13).

A third layer sits under the posted rate. Bank of China describes a preferential-rate deposit whose held-to-maturity rate is above the rate that bank posted on the day the deposit started, for the first term only (Bank of China, 整存整取, read 2026-10-13). Its July certificate-of-deposit issue had a 200,000 yuan minimum, seven tenors, rates of 0.80 per cent for one month, 1.00 for six, 1.10 for one year, 1.20 for two, 1.55 for three and 1.60 for five, plus a line at 1.15 for one year for limited customers (issue announcement, 2026-07-01).

Early withdrawal is where the posted table bites: a term deposit taken out before maturity pays the demand rate posted on the day of withdrawal, for the whole deposit or the withdrawn part, and the rest keeps the rate agreed at opening. Rate changes during the term do not alter it, and an overdue withdrawal pays the demand rate for the days past maturity (Decree No. 107, Articles 24 to 26). ICBC’s own deposit page adds a withdrawal rule: taking out 200,000 yuan or more needs a day’s notice at the branch (ICBC, read 2026-10-13).

Deposit insurance: 500,000 yuan per depositor per bank

Article 5 sets a maximum of 500,000 yuan, counts principal and interest together, and applies it to one depositor at one insured institution; anything above that comes from the institution’s liquidation estate. Article 4 puts renminbi and foreign-currency deposits inside the scheme and excludes interbank deposits, senior managers’ own deposits, and whatever else the fund rules out. Article 2 makes insurance compulsory for commercial banks, rural cooperative banks and rural credit cooperatives, and excludes branches foreign banks have set up inside China unless a country-to-country arrangement says otherwise (State Council Decree No. 660, passed 2014-10-29, promulgated 2015-02-17, in force 2015-05-01).

The scheme is signposted: since 2020-11-28 participating institutions have had to display a deposit insurance sign at the entrance of every branch (PBOC, notice of November 2020), and the list of participants was published most recently as at the end of June 2026 (PBOC, posted 2026-07-24, attached as a PDF list). A certificate of deposit is an ordinary deposit and inside the scheme (Bank of China).

Foreign-currency deposits sit in a different table

Nothing above applies to a deposit in dollars. The central bank’s page of current small-amount foreign-currency deposit rates carries a table that took effect 2005-12-28, with one-year rates of 3.000 per cent for the dollar, 2.625 for the Hong Kong dollar, 1.250 for the euro and 0.0100 for the yen (PBOC, read 2026-10-13). That table is a ceiling, not a rate banks pay: the central bank’s own 2005 notices call it 小额外币存款利率上限, a cap on small-amount foreign-currency deposit rates, last adjusted on 2005-12-28 (PBOC notice index).

Banks post their own, far lower. Bank of China’s foreign-currency table is dated 2022-06-29 and covers nine currencies; one-year figures are 0.8000 per cent for the dollar, 0.7000 for the Hong Kong dollar, 0.2500 for the Canadian dollar and 0.0001 for both the euro and the yen (Bank of China, dated 2022-06-29, read 2026-10-13). Those nine have demand and seven-day notice columns and terms of one, three and six months and one and two years (Bank of China, 整存整取, read 2026-10-13).

Two restrictions are printed on the bank’s own pages. A foreign-currency term deposit there is funded only from the customer’s own foreign-currency demand account or from cash in that currency, not from another person’s account, another bank or a transfer from abroad (Bank of China, 整存整取). Its foreign-currency notice deposit takes at least the equivalent of 1,000 dollars to open, against 50,000 yuan for the renminbi version (Bank of China, 通知存款, read 2026-10-13). Converting between the two currencies happens at the bank’s posted counter rates, which change through the day and carry no published spread limit; that table is set out in how the yuan is quoted.

What a foreign depositor shows

The rule is a decree from 2000, and it names the passport. Article 4 of the Rules on Real-Name Personal Deposit Accounts defines a personal deposit account as one held in renminbi or foreign currency, including demand, term, demand-or-term and notice accounts. Article 5 lists the identity documents that count, and for a foreign citizen it lists one: a passport. Articles 6 and 7 require the bank to check the document and record the name and number, and forbid opening the account without it (State Council Decree No. 285, issued 2000-03-20, in force 2000-04-01).

A bank’s own page repeats that list and adds a second document: for foreign citizens, Bank of China names a passport or a foreigner’s residence permit (外国人居留许可证) (Bank of China, 通知存款, read 2026-10-13). The central bank’s implementation rules put the same pair in the context of early withdrawal: taking out a term deposit before maturity requires the certificate and the depositor’s identity document, for a foreign depositor a passport or a residence permit (PBOC, Yinfa 1993 No. 7, Article 34).

Certificates of deposit add a real-name condition of their own: the issuing bank opens a dedicated account and purchases follow the real-name rules (Interim Rules, Article 11). A buyer needs an existing renminbi demand account at the bank to fund and receive the money, and buys with a valid identity document at a counter or through the bank’s own electronic channels (Bank of China).

None of this names a visa. The gate is the account the deposit sits in, and the tiered account system, the documents and the visa lists a branch works from are in opening a bank account in China as a visitor.

How I read these numbers

Every page was fetched on 2026-10-13 between 08:30 and 09:20 China time, and the Chinese originals were read and transcribed.

• Posted rates came from each bank’s dedicated rate page, not a product page or an aggregator: Bank of China’s index of renminbi deposit rate tables and the 2025-05-20 entry on it, and ICBC’s renminbi deposit rate table. Both pages show 2025-05-20 as the current table.
• I read both banks’ tables rather than one, because one page cannot show whether a figure is a market rate or a house decision. The two were identical.
• Posted, preferential and issue rates are three different numbers. Only the first stands as a posted figure; an issue rate is fixed per issue and holds for the agreed term.
• Decree No. 107 is cited as revised on 2011-01-08, per the Ministry of Justice’s administrative regulations database; the certificate-of-deposit rules are the 2015 original.
• Percentages are as printed; the comparison against the benchmark is mine.

What I could not check

• Which rate a branch will pay. No bank publishes the number a counter decides; posted, preferential and issue rates are all printed, and the choice among them is not.
• How “small-amount” is defined for the foreign-currency ceiling. A central bank reply of 2025-01-26 says the table has not been repealed and puts small-amount at under 3 million dollars (PBOC); whether a bank applies the ceiling above that is not published.
• Whether foreign bank branches are inside the scheme. Article 2 leaves them out unless a country-to-country arrangement says otherwise; I found no arrangement and no list entry.
• What a branch asks for beyond the passport. The national rules name one document and a bank page names two; local guides add more, none of it a deposit rule.
• The latest certificate-of-deposit issue. The most recent Bank of China issue announcement I found is dated 2026-07-01, three months before this read.