Chinese authorities asked the nation’s biggest banks to lower their deposit rates for at least the second time in less than a year, according to people familiar with the matter, marking an escalated effort to boost the world’s second-largest economy. State-owned lenders including Bank of China Ltd., Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of Communications Co. were last week advised to cut rates on a range of products, including on demand deposits by 5 basis points and three-year and five-year time deposits by at least 10 basis points, said the people, who asked not to be identified. The request was ... (full story)