China outlines reform measures to build up financial system efficiency, resilience, competitiveness

With China aiming at building a financial powerhouse during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), the country's financial regulators on Thursday unveiled measures spanning monetary policy reform, capital-market resilience and high-level financial opening-up.

Chinese experts said the country's financial reform is entering a phase of systemic advancement to realize greater efficiency, stability, and global competitiveness.

The rollout of the financial powerhouse plan was announced on Thursday by Lu Lei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), at a press conference. The plan sets out the overall strategy and detailed roadmap for financial work during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

The plan sets out the key tasks for building a financial powerhouse during next five years, including improving the macro financial regulation framework, strengthening financial supervision, preventing and defusing financial risks, better serving the real economy, and advancing high-level financial opening-up, Lu said.

Financial authorities unveiled targeted measures on Thursday. Notably, these measures and targets will make China's monetary policy framework more market-oriented, strengthen capital-market resilience, and effectively support new quality productive forces.

According to Lu, the PBC, the central bank, will be committed to maintaining yuan stability and, on that basis, promoting economic growth and supporting high-quality development of the real economy. It will gradually reduce reliance on "quantitative" intermediate targets and place greater emphasis on interest-rate regulation.

The PBC will strengthen market-based interest-rate formation and transmission, reinforce the guiding role of policy rates, and improve transmission to market rates, Lu said.

Lu reiterated that the market should play the decisive role in exchange-rate formation and that China has no intention of seeking trade advantages through currency depreciation.

The shift reflects a broader effort to return financial policy to its fundamental role of serving the real economy, said Bian Yongzu, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Modernization of Management magazine. The health of the financial system, he said, should be judged not by headline indicators, but by how effectively it supports high-quality growth and technological innovation, he told the Global Times on Thursday. He added that the approach draws lessons from the risks of excessive financialization in some developed economies.

To further stimulate market vitality, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) will continue to support the growth of high-quality companies representing new quality productive forces.

The CSRC will introduce more inclusive rules for public listings and mergers and acquisitions, seek to make the A-share market the preferred listing venue for high-quality domestic companies, and dynamically refine listing standards to broaden coverage of innovative and high-quality firms, according to CSRC Vice Chairman Li Chao.

The PBC will also further diversify financial market products and services, enhance market inclusiveness, increase the share of direct financing, and enable financial markets to better support the development of new quality productive forces, according to Lu.

An open and globally competitive financial system is also a defining feature of a financial powerhouse, a Chinese expert noted, adding that this will be another key focus for multiple financial authorities in the next stage.

Li Chao said the CSRC will work to accelerate the development of world-class exchanges, enhance their overall strength and global competitiveness, and improve the security and technological capabilities of trading and settlement infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Li Bin, deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said the administration will make foreign exchange services more efficient and convenient for compliant and trustworthy businesses, further broaden and deepen opening-up in the foreign exchange sector, strengthen the prevention and supervision of cross-border capital flow risks, and improve the sector's governance system and policy implementation.

China's push to build a financial powerhouse is entering a critical stage, with the focus shifting from scale expansion toward higher-quality, more resilient development, Bian said. A stronger financial system should better serve the real economy, especially emerging sectors such as AI, through more flexible capital-market mechanisms and greater support for long-term investment.

He added that stronger resilience is essential as geopolitical tensions, protectionism and overseas market risks increase.

At the same time, deeper financial opening-up, stronger global connectivity and greater international use of yuan will help Chinese financial institutions and companies expand overseas while enhancing China's role in global financial governance.

As China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Bian said the focus of financial development is shifting from expansion in scale toward stronger allocation efficiency, resilience and global competitiveness, with serving the real economy remaining the leading priority.