PBOC seeks to raise supply of short-term funding to banks

Bloomberg

The People’s Bank of China is acting to increase the supply of short-term funding to banks after the seizure of a regional lender rattled domestic markets.
China’s central bank injected a net amount of 150 billion yuan ($21.7 billion) through open-market operations, the most since the week ended March 8. Regulators announced that they will take control of Baoshang Bank Co. citing “serious” credit risks, fueling worries of failures elsewhere and driving up funding costs.
The benchmark 7-day repo rate rose further on Tuesday to the highest in more than a month, in spite of the central bank’s efforts to calm interbank markets. The jitters set off by the Baoshang case also focus scrutiny on whether the central bank will cut the amount of reserves lenders need to hold sooner rather than later, as tax season, bond sales and maturing policy operations drain cash from the banking system.
“The Baoshang incident has made investors question the quality of similar assets and tightened interbank funding,” said Liu Peiqian, Asia strategist at Natwest Markets Plc in Singapore.
About 2.9 trillion yuan are due to be drained from China’s banking system between June and August, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Without rising stress in the banking system, the PBOC’s preferred course of action would be to keep extra liquidity provision to a minimum, with the government’s debt campaign and the vulnerability of the yuan in mind. A broad cut to the reserve-ratio runs the risk of sending a stronger easing signal than is
warranted, depressing the currency.