Henan bank crisis savers must ‘wait patiently’ for compensation amid systemic risk, social instability concerns
- An unnamed official from China’s banking regulator addressed problems facing China’s financial sector during a wide-ranging interview
- Disgruntled savers at five banks in Henan and Anhui provinces have been told they will receive their money, but the official did not provide a detailed timeline
Customers caught up in one of China’s biggest banking scandals have been asked to “wait patiently” to receive their compensation amid growing concerns over systemic risks and social instability.
Deposits at four banks in Henan province and one in neighbouring Anhui have been frozen since mid-April, leading to protests from disgruntled customers.
“The action plan is to repay the principal of these customers in batches,” an unnamed official from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) told the state-owned China Banking and Insurance News in a rare, wide-ranging interview on Sunday.
But the official stressed that it would take time for authorities to collect customer information from such a large number of people and perform relevant checks because the original data had been removed.