Currency pairs continue to dominate as single equity indices return to top 3 underlying ranking.

Structured deposit issuance in China recovered in March as both issuance and sales volumes picked up following the typical seasonal dip over the Lunar New Year period. The SRP database registered 1,004 retail structured deposits issued in March in China, representing a 23% increase compared to February. The overall sales volume of retail structured deposits in March is estimated at US$18.2 billion in March, increased by 42% from US$12.8 billion recorded in February.

China: monthly issuance of retail structured deposits between Mar 2025 and Mar 2026

Source: SRP

The structured deposit balance for retail investors in March remained broadly stable compared to February at CNY 2.07 billion. On a year-on-year basis, the outstanding balance held by the four largest stat-owned national commercial banks and large-sized banks in March increased significantly.

The combined balance across the four major stated-owned – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China – rose from CNY 175 billion to CNY 554 billion. Meanwhile, the balance held by large-size banks like China Development Bank, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China increased from CNY 209 billion to CNY 668 billon over the same period of last year.

China: structured deposit balance breakdown by bank types

* ICBC, CCB, ABC, BOC
** CDB, BoCOM and the postal Savings Bank of China
*** Banks whose total asset are less than CNY 2 trillion (as of year-end 2008 demonstrated in both RMB and foreign currencies)
Source: People’s Bank of China

Underlyings, payoffs

Currency pairs persisted as the leading underlying assets, securing a market share of 85% in March. There were 855 products linked to foreign exchange rates valued at approximately US$15.5 billion. Gold was next line with a sales volume estimated at US$1.3 billion. Equiy-linked products referencing single indices returned to third place in the underlying ranking by product issuance with 59 products worth an estimated US$1.11 billion.

In March, the XAU/USD pair became the top underlying asset for structured deposits by issuance, capturing a market share of 34% with 343 products that sold an estimated US$5.8 billion, up by 56% compared to the previous month. The EUR/USD pair slipped to second place with 264 products sold at US$4.7 billion in March, up by 17%. Both AUD/USD pair and USD/ JPY pair ranked on third place, each with 89 products registered in SRP database. Sales of AUD/ USD pair accounted for an estimated volume of US$ 1.8 billion while USD/ JPY pair raised around US US$1.4 billion.

Gold slid to the fifth place in March with 81 products. Nonetheless, estimated sales of gold-linked products increased by 39%, rising from US$ 0.9 billion in February to US$ 1.3 billion in March.

China: structured deposits sold to retail investors - top 10 most used underlyings by issuance in January 2025

Source: SRP

The CSI SmallCap 500 dropped to sixth place in the underlying ranking with 48 issuances. Fifteen of these retail structured deposits linked to the CSI Smallcap 500 featured autocall payoffs, including seven products issued by Shenzhen Ping An Bank and another 29 products linked to the index issued by China Merchants Bank featured a shark fin payoff profile..

Issuers

China Merchants Bank claimed the first place in the issuers ranking in March.  The bank led the retail structured deposit market with 398 products – up from 267 products in February.

Bank of China took the second place with an increase in issuance at 268 products in March compared to 186 products registered in February. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank retained the third place with 110 issuances registered followed by Hua Xia Bank with 72 issuances.

China: retail structured deposits - top 5 issuers by issuance in Mar 2026

 

Source: SRP

The top five issuer ranking in January was completed by China Merchants Bank (398 products), Bank of China (268 products), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (110 products), Hua Xia Bank (72 products) and China CITIC Bank (52 products).

Looking ahead

There are 1,152 retail structured deposits in the Chinese market with maturity dates in April 2026 compared to 1,199 structured deposits in March.

The best‑performing structured deposit in March was China Merchants Bank’s招商银行智盈系列进取型看涨鲨鱼鳍 120 天结构性存款PE0470 / 20D CNY Structured Deposit PE0470 linked to the CSI Smallcap 500, featuring capital protection with knock-out. The product struck on 11 November 2025 and matured on 11 March 2026 with a 102.62% payout (2.62% p.a.).

Image: LP2 Studio/Adobe Stock

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