Commercial banks to get $4.4b cash line

China's central bank and Finance Ministry said yesterday they would deposit 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) of treasury cash with commercial lenders to make more funds available for lending.

The cash will be deposited with lenders for three months starting from Oct 30, according to a statement by the People's Bank of China. The cash deposit rate will be decided through an auction involving banks that offer to handle the deposit, the central bank said without elaborating.