Many small and medium-sized banks have removed a large number of long-term fixed deposit products from their shelves.

Recently, many small and medium-sized banks have made intensive adjustments to their deposits: not only have they focused on removing 3-year and 5-year fixed-term deposit products, but some institutions have also explicitly canceled 5-year fixed-term deposit products. At the same time, many banks have also simultaneously lowered deposit interest rates for various terms. Interviewees indicate that the core purpose of this move by banks is to proactively optimize their liability structure and reduce liability costs. By reducing the scale and cost of medium- to long-term deposits, they can effectively alleviate operational pressures. More importantly, based on the market's consistent expectation of interest rate cuts, banks can guide deposit behavior through adjusting product types or pricing, strengthening active management of passive liabilities, and thus shortening average liability maturity time 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, Tuyouqi Rural Commercial Bank in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was the first to announce the cancellation of 5-year fixed-term deposits starting from November 5th, and also lowered the interest rates of other term deposits. Specifically, the 1-year and 2-year rates were lowered by 5 basis points to 1.45% and 1.55% respectively; the 3-year rate had the greatest decrease, down by 10 basis points to 1.85%, and the original 5-year fixed-term deposit rate of 1.9% was shown as missing. The bank explicitly stated that this decision was made after "comprehensive consideration of peer institutions' interest rate levels." Private banks have also joined the adjustment campaign. Several institutions, such as Webank, Zhongxin Baixin Bank, Huarui Bank, and Xin'an Bank, have removed the option of 5-year fixed-term deposits from their deposit products in their apps. Some banks have made even larger adjustments, removing 3-year fixed-term deposits as well. For example, Beijing Zhongguancun Bank clearly stated in its interest rate adjustment announcement that 3-year and 5-year fixed-term deposits have both been removed.