Chinese authorities have expanded guidelines on bank bill discounting to cover all market participants, effectively bringing bill operations to a halt, according to multiple sources. As borrowing demand slumped amid the economic slowdown, banks turned to the bill market to meet lending targets and deploy surplus funds, driving bill rediscount rates sharply lower in recent months. Guidelines reported by Reuters last week barred some major banks from rediscounting bills at rates below 0.5 percent, but the impact was limited because many small and medium-sized financial institutions continued to trade below that level. The new guidelines extend the restriction to all market participants, requiring both bid and offer rates to be maintained at or above 0.5 percent. In response, state-owned and joint-stock banks have uniformly reset their bill quotes across all tenors to 0.5 percent.