Are new signals being sent by the bill market? The constraints on the acceptable loan scale for small and medium-sized banks have been relaxed this year, while large banks still play the role of a "ballast stone."

Caixin News (April 4) (Reporter: Liang Kezhi) The bill market has always been one of the barometers for credit.

Caixin News reporters recently learned from industry insiders that this year’s March bill market released signals different from those of previous years: joint-stock banks同比 reduced bill holdings by roughly 190 billion yuan more than the same period last year, while state-owned major banks and the Agricultural Development Bank of China went from a net reduction of 60 billion yuan in the same period last year to a net purchase of more than 120 billion yuan.

Zhou Haibin, Vice President of Shanghai Pulanjinfu, told reporters that in March, the mid-point of interest rates for bill re-discounting and direct discounting continued to move lower, and the overall bill re-discounting and direct discounting volumes of small and medium-sized banks (including joint-stock banks) continued to decline. According to feedback from institutions, an important reason is that the requirements for the “amount of satisfactory loans” for small and medium-sized banks have been loosened.

Caixin News reporters contacted multiple sources in the business communities of joint-stock banks and city commercial banks to verify and confirmed that the above-mentioned “loosening of the scale requirements” is indeed happening. What’s more, public-sector business personnel at multiple banks interviewed also told reporters that, as the scale requirements have been increasingly de-emphasized, first-quarter credit disbursement by local banks in inland cities was weaker than in previous years, with some banks’ year-on-year disbursements falling by about 30%-40%.

Multiple banks interviewed: This year, credit scale requirements have been de-emphasized, and flexibility has increased

Multiple bank interviewees confirmed to Caixin News reporters that certain requirements stressed by relevant authorities earlier—such as “loan growth not lower than how much,” and “the need to reach a certain scale for disbursement”—have clearly been de-emphasized this year.

A corporate finance professional at a joint-stock bank told reporters that while the head office still emphasizes technology and new industries when formulating this year’s disbursement targets, the rigid growth requirements in other areas—such as the growth of inclusive finance loans—are weakening.

The changes at the local level are also evident. An executive at a city commercial bank in the West said that in previous years, relevant authorities would provide window guidance on loan disbursement, but this year it has switched to statistical reporting and they no longer impose scale requirements. A person in charge of a city commercial bank branch in central China also said directly that this year, “the flexible range for scale assessments has been expanding.”

More critically, there are structural changes. Some bank business people mentioned that in local incremental credit over the past two years, the proportion of major banks has generally exceeded 50%, and in some regions it has even reached 70%. A senior business person at a city commercial bank in Guangdong analyzed for reporters that under such a business landscape, continuing to impose “satisfactory scale” constraints on small and medium-sized banks is of limited significance.

A banking industry analyst at a Beijing securities firm believes that this kind of “reducing the burden” approach toward small and medium-sized banks reflected from the front line is, in essence, an acknowledgment of the real-life situation of competitive tiering among banks—small and medium-sized banks no longer play the main role in total-volume expansion, and instead return more to serving their regions and taking on differentiated positioning.

Some of the people interviewed told reporters that this year, “lending less” does not necessarily mean that examination and assessment pressure will rise. In the past, if the “satisfactory indicators” were not fully met by the end of the month or quarter, it would often be easy to receive follow-up calls urging compliance.

Major banks will still shoulder the responsibility for stabilizing total volume

In stark contrast to the “de-stressing” of joint-stock banks, city commercial banks, and other small and medium-sized banks is that state-owned major banks still shoulder the responsibility of stabilizing the overall credit volume.

Bill market data also supports this trend. Caixin News reporters learned that in March 2025, state-owned major banks’ bill re-discounting business was still mainly characterized by net reductions, whereas in March 2026 it shifted to net purchases exceeding 120 billion yuan. With bill interest rates continuing to fall and market demand insufficient, state-owned major banks increased their allocation efforts against the trend. In practice, they have played the role of a “stabilizer” for total social financing (社融) volume.

In addition, industry insiders pointed out that the nature of state-owned major banks “picking up bills” in the market has changed. Zhou Haibin believes that today, when state-owned major banks “increase volumes,” it is more about being centered on real loans and asset allocation, rather than simply boosting volumes in large quantities by relying on short-term tools like bills. This also means that quality requirements for credit disbursement are being raised, with total-volume expansion and structural optimization advancing in tandem.

Caixin News reporters noted that this aligns with the spirit from the first-quarter regular meeting of the People’s Bank of China’s Monetary Policy Committee on March 26. At the time, the meeting pointed out that efforts should guide large banks to play the leading role in providing financial services to the real economy, promote small and medium-sized banks to focus on their primary responsibilities and core businesses, and enhance banks’ capital strength.

Pulanjinfu’s report believes that in March 2026, the interest rate on 6-month state-issued bills once fell below 1%, showing that both abundant liquidity and scarce assets coexist. Against the backdrop of stronger regulation to address “involution-style competition” and the “de-emphasis on attention to credit total volume,” suppressing large-scale “using bills to substitute for loans” will be emphasized.

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责任编辑：李琳琳