Banks may get more leeway on rates

China's commercial banks may get more freedom to determine their own deposit and lending interest rates with the expected acceleration of market-oriented interest rate reform promoted by the top financial regulator, according to market analysts.

Analysts' speculation was aroused when some banks' executives held a meeting last week to discuss enlarging the cap on deposit rates to 1.4-1.5 times the one-year benchmark interest rate, up from the current 1.3-1.4 times.

The free-floating range of commercial banks' deposit and lending interest rates now is guided by self-regulation in the banking sector, although the People's Bank of China, the central bank, removed both the up and down limits "in principle" in 2015, according to experts.