Scammed Bank Customers In China To Get Money Back After Protests

The Associated Press (AP) reported on July 13, 2022, that financial regulators in central China's Henan and Anhui provinces have promised to give some bank customers some of their deposits back. This comes after a violent protest on Sunday over these frozen accounts turned violent.

Photo Insert: The People's Bank of China, which is the country's central bank, guarantees deposits of up to 500,000 yuan ($74,000), but for some people, that won't be enough to cover their losses.

Officials said in statements released late Monday that people whose deposits were less than 50,000 yuan (about $7,400) would get their money back. They said that people with bigger bank balances would get their money back at a later date that was not given.

The bank protests have attracted widespread publicity because angry depositors who tried to go to Zhengzhou in Henan to try to get their money back from the six financially troubled rural banks were stopped from traveling by a health app on their phones.

On Sunday, they held their biggest protest yet, which was violently broken up by police and security in plain clothes.

The protesters are among the thousands of people who opened bank accounts in Henan and the nearby province of Anhui because the interest rates were high. Later, they found out that they couldn't take money out because the head of the parent company of the bank was wanted for financial crimes.

Customers, who have been holding protests online and off since April to try to get their money back, were skeptical about the news from the government. A bank customer who didn't join Sunday's protest, said, "This does not actually solve the problem."

The People's Bank of China, which is the country's central bank, guarantees deposits of up to 500,000 yuan ($74,000), but for some people, that won't be enough to cover their losses.

One protester, who only gave her last name, Ding, said that she and her mother had a total of 800,000 yuan (about $119,000) in savings at different banks.

"They made this announcement because we put our lives on the line. This less than 50,000 yuan isn't what we are owed. It's more a payment to keep social stability," said Ding, who declined to give her full name out of fear of reprisal. She and her husband were hit by plainclothes security staff during a protest Sunday, when several people were injured.

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