Small banks feel the pinch of rising borrowing costs

Smaller banks are experiencing record high borrowing costs to raise funds as they are caught between seasonal cash squeeze and the official deleveraging drive.

Issuance of negotiable certificates of deposit or NCDs, an interbank financing tool, jumped to 758 billion yuan in the third week of this month, the most since the securities were introduced in 2013 as a lifeline for smaller banks.

According to Bloomberg data, the yield on one-month AAA-rated NCDs has surged nearly one percentage point in June to all-time high of 5.05 percent, while that on AA+ contracts reached 5.3 percent.