Redeeming the old to issue the new: banks' preferred shares are exiting the market en masse.

Recently, a Bank of Jiangsu announcement landed, putting 200 million shares of "Suyin You 1" preferred stock on a countdown to delisting. On November 30, this city commercial bank will fully redeem this batch of capital instruments issued in 2017, with the redemption price set at the par value plus the current period's declared but unpaid preferred stock dividends. This is not an isolated case. Wind data shows that since the beginning of this year, five listed banksChina Everbright Bank, Ping An Bank, China Merchants Bank, Bank of Beijing, and Bank of Nanjinghave completed preferred stock redemptions, and China CITIC Bank will also redeem 350 million shares of preferred stock issued in 2016 on October 26. A "position-switching" operation centered on additional Tier 1 capital instruments is quietly unfolding in a low-interest-rate environment.