China's money-market rate...

....climbed to the highest level in more than three years on speculation a cash crunch will worsen as banks seek to meet capital requirements by quarter-end.

The seven-day repurchase rate, which measures interbank funding availability, more than doubled in the past six days since the People's Bank of China ordered lenders to set aside more money as reserves for a sixth time this year. A total of372 billion Yuan ($57.5
billion) of central bank bills and repurchase agreements will mature
next month, compared with 601 billion Yuan in June, according to China Merchants Bank Co.

"Banks have to hoard cash to meet the regulator's capital or loan-to-deposit requirements by the end of every quarter,"said Liu Junyu, a bond analyst at China Merchants, the nation's sixth-largest lender. "So we won't see the shortage easing."