In March, a group of banks lowered their deposit listing interest rates. According to the analysis, this group of banks mainly consists of regional small and medium-sized banks in Yunnan, Shandong, Xinjiang and other regions. The adjusted deposit products involve both long and short-term terms, mainly concentrated in long-term limited deposit products, with interest rate reductions of up to 30 basis points. Specifically, recently, Xinjiang Bank Co., Ltd. issued a notice on adjusting the listing interest rate of RMB deposits. The bank will adjust the listing interest rate for RMB deposits starting from March 10th. This adjustment involves multiple types of fixed deposit products, including three-month, six-month, one-year, two-year, three-year, and five-year terms, with a reduction range of 10 basis points to 15 basis points. Yunnan Yuanjiang North Yincun Town Bank Co., Ltd. recently announced that the bank will adjust the interest rates of some deposit products from March 1, 2026. The adjusted products include current deposits, three-year and five-year fixed deposits, among which the five-year fixed deposit has the largest reduction, reaching 30 basis points, from 2.2% to 1.9%. As a result, the bank's fixed deposit interest rates for all maturities bid farewell to the "two letter prefix". In addition, several rural commercial banks and village banks, such as Chiping Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank Co., Ltd., Heilongjiang Friendship Rural Commercial Bank Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Heilongjiang Friendship Rural Commercial Bank"), and Nanjing Pukou Jingfa Rural Commercial Bank Co., Ltd., have adjusted their deposit listing interest rates since March and generally lowered long-term fixed-term deposit interest rates. After adjusting the deposit listing interest rate, some banks' fixed deposit product interest rates have shown an "inverted" trend. For example, Heilongjiang Friendship Rural Commercial Bank will adjust the interest rates for current deposits, fixed deposits, and three-year and five-year deposits starting from March 1, 2026. The interest rate for three-year fixed deposits will be raised by 5 basis points, and the interest rate for five-year fixed deposits will be lowered by 10 basis points. After adjustment, the bank's three-year and five-year deposit interest rates are 1.75% and 1.60%, respectively. The reporter noticed that unlike in the past when large state-owned banks adjusted first, small and medium-sized banks followed the pace of adjustment. Since the beginning of this year, small and medium-sized banks have taken the lead in adjusting deposit interest rates, and their actions have been more frequent. Lou Feipeng, a researcher at China Postal Savings Bank, told reporters that since March, many small and medium-sized banks have lowered deposit interest rates, and some products have experienced interest rate inversion. This reflects that banks are facing net interest margin pressure and have shifted from competing for scale to controlling costs. When repricing high interest deposits at maturity, they lower the listing interest rate to reduce debt costs and alleviate profit pressure. Tian Lihui, a finance professor at Nankai University, told reporters that in the future, the deposit interest rates of small and medium-sized banks will show a dual feature of overall decline and structural differentiation, continuing the downward trend but slowing down the pace. Low interest rate environment will become the norm, with three-year fixed deposit interest rates generally maintained at the "1" level, and some short-term products even entering the "0" level. Depositors should rationally view the decline in interest rates and respond to the arrival of the low interest rate era through diversified asset allocation. Lou Feipeng believes that the deposit interest rates of small and medium-sized banks will continue to decline in the future, but the decrease may be relatively small and the adjustment will be more refined. (New Society)