ACCOUNTS FROZEN:
Clients with up to 50,000 yuan in deposits would be repaid first, but people with larger deposits were concerned they might not receive full payments
Chinese authorities are to start repaying most of the victims in the nation’s biggest bank scam after hundreds of angry customers took to the streets again over the weekend to ratchet up pressure on the government.
Clients from the four rural banks in the central province of Henan and one in Anhui would be repaid “in advance” starting on Friday, according to statements by local branches of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.
Individuals with deposits of up to 50,000 yuan (US$7,423) would be repaid first, with arrangements for the rest subject to further notice.
Hundreds of bank customers protested on Sunday after similar demonstrations broke out in May and again in late last month in Zhengzhou, a city of about 10 million people, calling on the authorities to return tens of billions of yuan of deposits in a suspected scam.
That has prompted the banking watchdog to speed up drafting a plan to resolve risks even as a police investigation is still ongoing.
“The latest move shows the local government is trying to maintain social stability by advancing a small amount of payments…
