Banks' Creative "Customer Grab" Financial Management "Spring Festival" Campaign Kicks Off with a Bang

Source: Shanghai Securities News Author: Xu Xiaoxiao

As the Year of the Horse Spring Festival approaches, the banking wealth management market enters an important annual marketing period. An unseen “customer competition” has already fully ignited. From online app red envelope rain and year-end bonus exclusive wealth management to offline branches decorated festively and themed events, various marketing activities are emerging endlessly. They mainly target residents’ year-end bonuses and family New Year’s money, launching a series of short-term, highly liquid products.

This lively marketing not only aims to attract customers but also reflects the current banking industry’s operational pressure under declining interest rates and scarce quality assets. However, industry insiders remind that for ordinary investors, when facing various holiday-specific financial products, maintaining rationality is essential. Attention should be paid to the actual risks and liquidity arrangements of products, especially details like the start date and redemption rules, to avoid affecting post-holiday funds due to pursuit of short-term gains.

Spring Festival Wealth Management Marketing Fully Unleashed

This year, banks’ “Spring Festival” marketing shows a scene as lively as the festive atmosphere. Its notable features include the full-scale expansion of marketing across all channels and the deep digital transformation of customer engagement methods. Online has become the undisputed main battlefield. A review of various banks’ apps shows that their homepages have been replaced with Year of the Horse themes, with key promotional links such as “Spring Festival Exclusive Wealth Management,” “Year-End Bonus Appreciation Plan,” and “Pre-Holiday Investment Strategies.”

Offline branches are also actively creating festive atmospheres. Visits reveal that many banks enhance customer experience through physical activities. Besides hanging red lanterns and posting Chinese knots, many banks launch diverse in-branch activities, such as “Scan QR code to win gold bars” and “Business transactions with free Spring Festival couplets and lucky bags.”

As in previous years, “year-end bonuses” and “New Year’s money” remain the main marketing hooks for bank wealth management. Several banks have tailored financial products and service plans around these two seasonal funds. For the year-end bonuses of working professionals, banks have launched “Year-End Bonus Wealth Management Zones,” focusing on short-term, highly liquid, stable-yield products, with some annualized yields 0.3 to 0.8 percentage points higher than usual. For example, China Merchants Bank held a wealth management event called “Salary Year-End Bonus” for nearly a year with salary cardholders, recommending exclusive wealth management products for salary cards, with annualized yields ranging from 1.43% to 2.84%.

Regarding “New Year’s money,” banks target teenagers and family customers, promoting children’s dedicated bank cards, education savings accounts, and low-threshold mutual funds. For instance, ICBC, Bank of Beijing, Zhejiang Commercial Bank, and Zhengzhou Bank have launched children’s dedicated bank cards. For example, ICBC offers the “Baby Growth Card” for clients under 18, and Bank of Beijing offers the “Xiao Jing Card.” Some banks also introduce innovative financial products like “New Year’s Money” dedicated savings plans, with moderate interest rate discounts.

Competing for “High-Quality Liabilities” to Ease Pressure

The full-scale Spring Festival marketing by banks appears to be a product and activity competition on the surface, but in essence, it is a proactive fight for “high-quality liabilities.” Against the backdrop of economic transformation, scarce quality assets, and persistent interest rate declines, banks face dual challenges of rising liability costs and profit pressure.

Pure deposit growth is no longer the ultimate goal for banks. A financial analyst from a state-owned bank told the Shanghai Securities News that, on one hand, the macro economy is in a transition period, and stable, high-yield safe assets are relatively scarce; on the other hand, residents’ risk appetite has significantly decreased, preferring to deposit funds in banks for safety, leading to increased deposit scales but also higher costs.

Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst at Bo Tong Consulting, told the Shanghai Securities News, “Residents’ savings willingness remains high, but increased volatility and uncertain returns in stocks, bonds, and other assets make year-end bonuses and pre-holiday funds the focus of bank competition.” He believes that banks aim to lock in short-term liquidity during holiday windows and convert it into medium- and long-term wealth management allocations. Essentially, this is a proactive scramble for high-quality liabilities in a low-interest-rate environment.

Currently, three main types of wealth management products are suitable for short-term idle funds during the Spring Festival, balancing flexibility and returns:

1. Money Market Funds, such as Yu’e Bao and Lingqian Tong, mainly invest in low-risk assets like bank deposits and government bonds. They are low risk, highly liquid, and can be used at any time. However, yields are generally between 1% and 2%, and investors should note to subscribe on the last trading day before the holiday to avoid no returns during the break.

2. Reverse Repurchase Agreements (Repo), suitable for investors with stock accounts seeking short-term high yields. Backed by government bonds, risk is extremely low. During the 1-2 days before the holiday, market liquidity tightens, causing yields to spike. One-day repos can even generate returns for the entire holiday period. However, rates fluctuate significantly and often fall quickly after the holiday, making them suitable for pre-holiday window operations.

3. Bank Cash Management Products, issued by banks or wealth management firms, with underlying assets mostly high-grade bonds. They carry relatively low risk, with yields usually slightly higher than money market funds, around 2% to 3%, and offer flexible subscription and redemption. Some products have special versions for the Spring Festival, covering the holiday period. Investors should pay attention to subscription limits and redemption timing (T+0 or T+1) and confirm rules in advance.

Rational Planning for Holiday “Yield Relay”

Faced with a dazzling array of holiday-specific financial “specials,” how can investors avoid being swept away by marketing hype and truly make efficient use of holiday funds? Industry experts remind that rational planning is key.

Wang Pengbo suggests focusing on whether the product’s risk level matches your own risk tolerance, whether the underlying assets are clearly invested, and whether the start date and redemption rules affect fund use, rather than just expected returns or promotional gifts. Be cautious of promotional claims that use performance benchmarks as promised yields, hidden lock-up periods for short-term products, or misleading tactics like red envelope subsidies that artificially inflate actual costs, to avoid impulsive decisions driven by festive atmosphere.

Luo Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China, reminds that choosing short-term wealth management during the Spring Festival should consider personal needs and post-holiday arrangements. When selecting products, consider the investment period and expected returns, prioritizing those that can still accrue interest and be redeemed quickly during the holiday. Avoid products with long lock-up periods or slow redemption processes that could impact post-holiday fund use. It’s also advisable to reserve some emergency funds in money market funds, while dispersing other idle funds based on duration, to prevent a “fund gap” after the holiday.

“To ensure smooth investment transitions before and after the Spring Festival, it’s best to plan ahead,” Luo Feipeng advises. For example, choose quick-redemption money market funds or T+0 cash management products to facilitate timely transfers into long-term investments after the holiday. Setting up automatic redemption or transfer upon product maturity can also prevent forgotten operations and fund idleness. Additionally, arranging some short-term products that mature around the end of the holiday can help funds continue generating returns after the holiday ends.

Wang Pengbo notes that, in the long run, banks’ wealth management products will truly earn customer trust by building research capabilities, increasing transparency in asset allocation, strengthening risk control mechanisms, and improving customer service responsiveness—shifting from “selling products” to “managing wealth,” and replacing short-term promotional tactics with long-term steady performance.