Changes are in store for depositors with bank insurance program

The nation will launch a deposit insurance system during the first half of this year, and it is very likely to fully liberalize interest rates this year, People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Thursday.

Deposit insurance will protect the interests of savers and promote fair competition among large and small banks. It will cap coverage at 500,000 yuan ($79,857) for each client's deposits at each bank. Coverage of that scale will give full protection to 99.6 percent of the nation's depositors, the central bank said.

"We have finished gathering comments from banks on the introduction of the deposit insurance system. The feedback was generally positive. Conditions are ripe for launching the system," Zhou told reporters.