Speaking at the 2026 Financial Street Forum opening, PBOC's Pan said the central
bank will phase out deposit and loan benchmark rates. As interest-rate
liberalization progresses, those benchmarks are being replaced by market-based
pricing: banks already reference the loan prime rate (LPR) and the interbank
overnight repo rate. Since Q1 the PBOC has published average deposit rates by
tenor as a deposit-pricing reference. Next, the PBOC will push to replace
interest-calculation bases with market-based rate indicators to complete the
exit of financial institutions' deposit and loan benchmark rates.