Julia Kollewe
2 min read
Labubu dolls are the creation of Hong Kong-born, Netherlands-raised artist Kasing Lung.</span><span>Photograph: Jessica Lee/EPA</span>" height="768" loading="eager" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==" width="960">
Chinese authorities have banned domestic banks from luring customers with gifts including the hugely popular Labubu dolls, amid fierce competition among lenders as interest rates and profit margins decline.
The Zhejiang branch of China’s financial regulator, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, has asked local banks to refrain from offering non-compliant perks to attract deposits, Bloomberg News reported.
The guidance came after the Shenzhen-based Ping An Bank ran a promotion offering Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls in several cities to new customers who deposit at least 50,000 yuan (£5,162) for three months.
The fluffy dolls with a sharp-toothed grin first came on to the market in 2019 and are mostly sold in “blind boxes”. They went viral after Lisa from the K-pop band BlackPink was photographed with one attached to her luxury handbag last year, followed by the singer Rihanna.
The Labubu dolls are the creation of Kasing Lung, an artist born in Hong Kong and raised in the Netherlands. He was inspired by Nordic mythology when he created his “Monsters” characters for a series of picture books in 2015, including Labubu.
Ping An Bank’s promotion offered new customers a choice between a Labubu 3.0 blind box and a gift package.
However, the Chinese regulator wants to stop the practice of offering customers gifts, which can also include rice, small home appliances and online memberships, because it is concerned that this will increase costs at banks and hurt their profit margins.
Banks’ margins are at a record low. China’s central bank cut benchmark interest rates last month for the first time since October in an attempt to shield the economy from the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war. A few days later, the authorities lowered the ceilings on deposit rates to protect banks’ profit margins and discourage savings.
Ping An Bank’s marketing campaign went viral on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, and drew strong interest from savers, but state media said it was “not a long-term solution”.
Labubu dolls have sold out on Chinese e-commerce sites and Pop Mart’s official online channels, according to the news outlet Yicai, owned by the Shanghai Media group.
