China approved 141 banks, including two foreign lenders, to issue large-denomination certificates of deposit (CDs) to individuals and companies on Friday.
The move brings the total number of institutions allowed to issue the certificates to 243. On June 15, nine banks, including the "big four" state-owned lenders, started to issue the country's first batch of large-scale CDs after the central bank allowed such trading on June 2.
CDs are tradable deposit agreements that allow the market play a central role in deciding the interest rates of the financial products.
The participation threshold for purchasing a CD is set at 300,000 yuan (about 48,860 U.S. dollars) for individual investors and 10 million yuan for institutions, according to the central bank.
Interest on the certificates will be mainly determined by the market. Banks and investors can set a fixed or a floating rate, using the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor) as a benchmark.
