People’s Daily recently reported that the Chinese currency, the RMB, underwent a rapid pace of depreciation at the beginning of the new year, which caused a serious disturbance in the investment market. This negative wave impacted many individuals. Subsequently, reporters observed a sharp increase in personal exchange transactions for foreign currencies in banks in major cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen. Since many of the personal transactions occurred online, some banks suffered slowness and even breakdowns of their online systems. Managers of major banks such as the Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, and the Agricultural Bank of China all told reporters that the flood of customers who were exchanging RMB for U.S. Dollars or Hong Kong Dollars was “scary.” Many banks started to set caps and other restrictions on personal foreign exchange requests.
Source: People’s Daily, January 8, 2016
http://money.people.com.cn/bank/n1/2016/0108/c202331-28027995.html