Banks Runs In China?

Reader Kirk suggested Chinese bank runs might be the next story to cover. I think I covered bank runs at smaller rural Chinese banks in a previous “China is screwed” post. Is a wider run in progress? Maybe.

Multiple sources contacted by Asia Markets, have confirmed deposits at the following six banks have been frozen since mid-April.

  • Yuzhou Xinminsheng Village Bank (located in Xuchang City, Henan Province)
  • Zhecheng Huanghuai Bank (City of Shangqui, Henan Province)
  • Shangcai Huimin Rural Bank (Zhumadian City, Henan Province)
  • New Oriental Village Bank (City of Kaifeng, Henan Province)
  • Huaihe River Village Bank (Bengbu City, Anhui Province)
  • Yixian County Village Bank (Huangshan City, Anhui Province)
  • It’s understood the banks with branches across the Henan and Anhui Provinces successively issued announcements in April, stating they would suspend online banking and mobile banking services due to a system upgrade.

    At the same time, clients reported their electronic deposits in online accounts, mobile apps and third-party platforms could not be withdrawn.

    This led to depositors rushing to local bank branches, only to be told they were unable to withdraw funds.

    By late May, images emerged on Chinese social media of demonstrations at the front of numerous bank branches. Asia Markets has verified these images with local contacts.

    Snip.

    Regardless of the cause, the developments raise serious questions about the health of China’s and its regulatory oversight. The more immediate concern, however, is the prospect of contagion, which could see the (so-far) rural-only bank run spread to bigger cities.

    There’s evidence this is already happening.

    In one of the only mainstream international media articles to report on the unfolding situation, local residents highlighted the seriousness of the situation and the likelihood of contagion.

    From the Financial Times on June 9:

    “Some depositors such as Xu have already lost trust in the system. The 39-year-old said he had withdrawn all of his deposits from 10 other small banks that had promised him an annualised yield of more than 4 per cent.

    “Another depositor, a 30-year-old father, said he had placed more than Rmb900,000 in his village’s banks since 2020 at a return of 4.1 per cent. “I felt like being slaughtered,” he said, declining to give his name. He drove overnight to negotiate with the banking regulator in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, in mid-May. “This is the money my wife and I have saved together since we got married. I had to lie to her that I was away for work.”

    On Twitter, a video of a large line at an ICBC Bank in China (one of China’s largest state-owned banks) posted on Tuesday, June 9, suggest contagion is in progress.

    Translated to English, the tweet reads “The bank card system is locked, and these people are here to unlock it. Massive runs are coming.”

    Blogger, Jennifer Zeng, has reported major issues with withdrawing cash from banks in Shanghai in recent days. The uncertainty no doubt exacerbated by the prospect of more lockdowns as COVID cases again spike.

    “All banks in Shanghai have restricted depositors from withdrawing money… A bank run is about to sweep China,” she said.

    Maybe. This, from five days ago, suggests Shanghai banks are limiting total transactions to 300 a day.

    While I’m always willing to believe the worst about China’s smoke-and-mirrors economy, it’s possible that Shanghai’s problems are just temporary post-lockdown issues that will subside, assuming China doesn’t lock that city down again. (Don’t count on it.)

    All the reports of bank runs I’m seeing either link to that Asia Markets piece, or the Hal Turner radio show piece that largely reprints it.

    Right now I’m going to go with “Not Yet Proven” for current bank runs in China.

    Though Lord knows if I were stuck in China (and had somehow managed not to get imprisoned or executed), I’d be pretty intent on getting my money out of Yuan entirely and into something more stable like gold, silver, or even U.S. dollars…

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    5 Responses to “Banks Runs In China?”

    1. Kirk says:

      ‘S funny, ain’t it, how big-C Communism always works out to a Ponzi scheme for the benefit of the involved nomenklatura?

      Lay you long odds that when the whole thing blows up, Xi and company are going to be well out of the impact area, and the poor mid-level functionaries will be left holding the bag.

      All of this stems from the raw greed of the nomenklatura, who chose to trade long-term economic security and well-being for the average Chinese citizen for their own wealth and benefit. The CCP loves to paint the nations which took advantage of China during the 18th and 19th Century as rapacious thieves, but those nations have nothing on what the Communists did to their own people. The pollution, the ecologic damage, the sheer waste due to their failure to invest in a decent banking/financial system with some sort of honest retirement system…? The whole thing is a massive Ponzi scheme, and will end the same way as those always do. The real question at this point is how they will manage the blow-off.

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