Small and medium-sized banks are gradually clearing "dormant accounts," which may become a regular mechanism.

Our Staff Reporter Peng Yan

Since March, many small and medium-sized banks have issued announcements in quick succession to carry out centralized rectification and cleanup of low-efficiency accounts, such as accounts with no transactions for a long time, low balances, and mismatched identity information. At the same time, multiple institutions have stated that they will establish an annual, normalized cleanup mechanism, promoting the shift of bank account management from phased special campaigns to long-term, ongoing oversight.

Yang Haiping, a researcher at the Shanghai Finance and Law Research Institute, told Securities Daily that the centralized cleanup of “dormant accounts” by small and medium-sized banks is mainly based on three considerations: first, strictly implementing relevant requirements from regulators; second, strengthening risk prevention and control—accounts that remain idle for a long time are prone to misuse and theft and can become tools for illegal activities such as telecom fraud and money laundering, so cleanup can effectively protect customers’ funds security; and third, meeting the needs of refined operations by reducing the system and manpower costs occupied by ineffective accounts and optimizing the customer management framework.

Cleanup work will enter normalized operations

The reporter’s review found that the scope of this cleanup covers both individual and corporate bank settlement accounts. The core criteria are “no active transactions for a long time” and “low balances.” At the same time, information abnormal accounts—such as expired identification documents, accounts opened without real-name verification, and multiple accounts opened by one person—are also included in the cleanup scope. Unlike prior short-term special actions, “establishing an annual normalized mechanism” has become a distinctive feature of this round of cleanup, and many banks have already clarified their follow-up plans for ongoing execution.

Specifically, on March 19, Jiangjiang Rural Commercial Bank released an announcement on cleaning up individual bank settlement accounts, stating that it will clean up cases of one person holding multiple accounts; and it will clean up accounts whose phone numbers do not correspond one-to-one with the ID numbers. The bank will begin cleaning up accounts that meet the cleanup conditions starting June 30, 2026, and thereafter will conduct ongoing cleanup each year for accounts meeting the conditions.

Pinghe Rural Commercial Bank, meanwhile, stated in its March 14 announcement clear-cut criteria for defining inefficient corporate settlement accounts: between March 1, 2025 and February 28, 2026, corporate settlement accounts that have not initiated any receipt or payment business and have no outstanding debts to the bank are within the cleanup scope. The announcement shows that the first round of cleanup will be conducted in April 2026, and thereafter once every year.

A recent announcement from Qinghai Bank also clearly defined the cleanup standards for individuals who have remained idle for the long term: as of March 30, 2026, individuals with continuous 2 years or more of having not actively carried out deposit-in-cash, cash withdrawal, or fund transfer transactions, with balances of 50 yuan or less, and with no contractual relationships such as credit card repayment, loan repayment, large-denomination certificates of deposit, wealth management, ETC, etc. (excluding social security card accounts) will be included in the cleanup. The bank said that after completing the first round of cleanup on March 31, 2026, it will conduct standardized cleanup on a regular basis each year for accounts that meet the conditions.

In addition, many small and medium-sized banks, such as Gushi Tianjiao Rural and Town Bank and Panzhihua Rural Commercial Bank, have also moved in parallel to carry out centralized and standardized cleanup. Among them, multiple banks have stated that they will implement annual normalized cleanup going forward, building a new account management model of “centralized rectification + long-term management.”

Helps achieve cost reduction and efficiency gains

“Recently, the concentrated ‘dormant account’ cleanup actions launched by small and medium-sized banks are both compliance measures in the financial industry under regulatory guidance and an active adjustment by small and medium-sized banks in response to operational pressure.” Xue Hongyan, a special research fellow at Sushang Bank, told Securities Daily.

From the regulatory perspective, small and medium-sized banks—due to account management weaknesses such as slower customer information updates and relatively insufficient identity verification technologies—have become key targets of regulatory attention. From an operating perspective, small and medium-sized banks generally face challenges such as narrowing net interest margins and pressure on profitability. Long-idle accounts continue to occupy system resources and manpower costs. Cleaning up “dormant accounts” helps optimize account structures and achieve cost reduction and efficiency gains.

Xue Hongyan believes that for banks themselves, this can reduce ineffective utilization of resources, lower operating costs, free up saved resources to optimize products and services, strengthen full lifecycle account management, and improve risk control levels. At the industry level, this can also facilitate information sharing on account data among financial institutions and coordinated regulatory oversight, helping build a more comprehensive financial security line of defense.

Looking ahead to the subsequent normalized cleanup work, Xue Hongyan suggests that banks should establish a tiered and categorized management mechanism and formulate differentiated cleanup strategies based on factors such as account dormancy duration, balance situation, and risk level. At the same time, banks should optimize customer notification procedures to fully protect financial consumers’ right to be informed. In addition, they should further enhance identity verification and risk identification capabilities through technological upgrades, making cleanup work more efficient and more precise.

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

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