Financial Repression Tracker

Rules that steer savings into government debt or hold returns below inflation, country by country.

Hold · Rate caps

Window guidance and supervisory pressure on bank pricing and lending

What it is
Central banks or supervisors privately or publicly direct banks' lending plans or press them to reduce quoted rates without a universal statutory price ceiling.
Why it counts
Administrative pressure substitutes for market pricing and can ration credit while maintaining low interest rates.

When it was in force

  • Japan: 1991, historical; the rule may be older than the cited document
  • China: 2019, historical; the rule may be older than the cited document; its end is not documented

2 examples

  1. Japan

    1991Historical

    The rule may be older than the cited document · As cited: before abolition in 1991

    The Bank directly guided individual financial institutions' increases in lending until abolition in 1991.

    Bank of Japan window-guidance administrative practice (madoguchi shido)Primary source
    “the Bank gave direct guidance to financial institutions regarding the amount by which they increased their lendings”

    www2.boj.or.jp (opens in a new tab)Checked: quote matched on the page by script

    Japan today: index 64.9

  2. China

    2019Historical

    The rule may be older than the cited document · Its end is not documented

    Supervisors targeted banks quoting unusually high loan rates and pressed them to improve pricing mechanisms.

    Window guidance on inclusive SMB loan pricing, described at the State Council Information Office policy briefing of 25 April 2019Primary source
    “Window guidance were strengthened for a few number of banks whose interest rates were evidently higher than the average level”

    pbc.gov.cn (opens in a new tab)Checked: quote matched on the page by script

    China today: index 59.5

Examples and their dates reviewed .

Further reading

8 more on rate caps