Chinese authorities have announced they plan to repay most of the victims of the nation’s largest bank scam after another weekend of angry protests by victims seeking to increase the pressure on the government.

According to statements by local branches of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the government will repay customers of the four rural banks in Henan and Anhui, “in advance,” starting Friday. The first to be repaid will be customers with deposits of up to 50,000 yuan (about $7,400). Payment arrangements for the rest will be subject to further notice.

On Sunday, hundred of clients of the affected banks protested in Zhengzhou, demanding the government return the tens of billions of yuan which have been locked up in the banks since the deficiencies were first uncovered. There were similar protests in May, and again in late June. The protests succeeded in leading the banking watchdog to accelerate the drafting of a plan to resolve the issue, even as the Police investigation is proceeding.

Liao Zhiming, the chief bank analyst at China Merchant Securities Co. said, “The latest move shows the local government is trying to maintain social stability by advancing a small amount of payments out of their pockets.” 

He says some of the larger amounts of funds which have gone missing will probably not be paid back in full, as the government will deem they were not deposits in the bank but were rather purchased investment products, which will not be covered by the nation’s deposit insurance.

So far the investigation has reportedly uncovered that Henan Xincaifu Group Investment Holding Co., a private investment firm with stakes in the five lenders, had colluded with employees of the banks to take deposits and invest them in marketed financial products on online platforms. Once the money was invested with the company, the company used faked loan arrangements to transfer the funds out of the company.

Due to the investigation, authorities froze accounts at the affected banks, leading depositors to begin protesting to be allowed access to their savings. Protests have turned violent recently, as videos Sunday showed clashes with Police officers. For now, conditions do not appear to be getting beyond the control of the government.

Police have announced arrests in the fraud case, say the funds and assets involved in the case have been frozen, and assert they have the situation under control. However some depositors with accounts that held more that 50,000 yuan say they fear they will not be paid back.

The government has indicated it will not make any payments for accounts that were suspected of being involved in illegal activity, or which received high interest payments from other channels. Most customers were receiving about 4% interest on their deposits, or investments with the banks, which is roughly in line with normal returns on banking products in China.

There is worry this may not be the only such incident going on with Chinese banks. Smaller banks are a particular worry, since after years of explosive growth, and poor internal controls many may be faced with non-performing loans, or other financial improprieties that went unnoticed during the recent economic boom. In China there are nearly 4,000 small and medium sized lenders which control roughly $14 trillion in assets. Confidence in these banks has been lower since 1998 when the government seized one for the first time, and imposed losses on creditors.

Over the past few years, Chinese authorities have disposed of 2.6 trillion yuan ($385 billion) worth of bad debt at smaller banks. Beijing has also put several hundred billion yuan aside for bailing out troubled financial firms.

One bright light for the Chinese government is rural banks make up less than 1% of the banking industry’s total assets. Betty Wang, a senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., noted however that despite that, “inappropriate handling of the issue could result in social unease and threaten stability.”

“This can be particularly sensitive in the aftermath of local lockdowns and ahead of the 20th Party Congress,” she added.