Investment Rating - The industry investment rating is "Positive" (maintained) [1] Core Insights - The report emphasizes the necessity of regulating deposit pricing to effectively improve bank liability costs. Recent regulatory actions have successfully reduced banks' liability and deposit costs, creating favorable conditions for net interest margins and supporting low financing costs for the real economy [13][16] - The potential implementation of the "Self-Discipline 2.0" version for interbank deposits may link to the EPA pricing behavior assessment, which could enhance regulatory oversight [4][25] - The average deposit cost rate for listed banks is expected to decline to approximately 1.35% by 2026 [15] Summary by Sections 1. Necessity of Strengthening Self-Discipline in Interbank Deposits - Strengthening self-discipline in deposit pricing can effectively improve banks' liability costs. The average liability and deposit cost rates for listed banks as of mid-2025 are 1.68% and 1.54%, respectively, down by 30 basis points and 26 basis points from 2024 [13][14] 2. Possible Implementation of Self-Discipline 2.0 Version - The focus is currently on interbank demand deposits, with potential future inclusion of interbank time deposits in management. The self-discipline 1.0 version has been in effect since December 2024, with pricing constraints based on the 7-day OMO rate [22][23] 3. Scale and Impact - The interbank demand deposit market involves approximately 16 trillion yuan, with an expected net interest margin increase of 0.7 basis points. If high-interest demand deposits are reduced from 83% to 10%, the estimated impact on listed banks' liability cost rates and net interest margins would be -0.75 basis points and +0.7 basis points, respectively [5][7] 4. Investment Recommendations - The report suggests focusing on banks with strong group synergy, product innovation capabilities, and asset acquisition abilities. Recommended banks include CITIC Bank and Suzhou Bank, with beneficiaries including Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Jiangsu Bank, Hangzhou Bank, and Chongqing Bank [7][11]