A bank employee prepares bank notes. The State Council moved to scrap a rule that caps lending by commercial banks at 75 percent of their deposits, a measure that will increase the supply of cash in the financial system. [Photo/China Daily]

China will scrap commercial banks' loan-to-deposit ratio. It will propose amending the nation's banking law to make the limit a ratio used for reference rather than a regulatory statute.

中国将取消商业银行的“贷存比”，提出修正银行法案，将贷存比由法定监管指标转为参考指标。

“贷存比”可以用 loan-to-deposit ratio表示，即银行资产负债表(balance sheet)中的贷款余额占存款余额的比例。

贷存比一直是商业银行用来衡量银行流动性风险(liquidity risk)的指标之一。为防止银行过度扩张，央行规定商业银行最高的贷存比例为75%。贷存比仍将与流动性覆盖率(liquidity coverage ratio，LCR)、净稳定资金比率(net stable funding ratio，NSFR)等作为流动性风险管理指标。

中央银行试图减少金融系统的一些压力，自11月来，已3次下调基准利率(benchmark interest rate)，今年以来已2次下调存款准备金率(deposit-reserve ratio)。