The People's Bank of China will also conditionally initiate liquidity supply to non-bank financial institutions.

As Chinese authorities intensify fiscal and monetary policies to boost the economy, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has reiterated its commitment to providing conditional liquidity support to non-bank financial institutions. This move is interpreted as an effort to enhance financial market stability and to preempt systemic risks in the non-bank sector.

The PBOC held a meeting on January 5-6 to determine the main work priorities for the year and stated that, under the principle of early identification and correction of risks in small and medium-sized financial institutions, it plans to establish a dedicated mechanism to provide liquidity to non-bank financial institutions when necessary. This stance has been consistently mentioned since it was first proposed by Governor Pan Gongsheng in October last year, indicating ongoing efforts to implement relevant institutional arrangements.

Currently, China’s non-bank financial institutions include securities firms, insurance companies, asset management firms, and other financial intermediaries. Traditionally, central bank liquidity provision has mainly targeted commercial banks, but recently, with the diversification of the financial system, concerns about bank runs occurring in the non-bank sector have increased. Therefore, some believe it is necessary to establish a preventive, conditional liquidity support mechanism to maintain overall financial market stability during crises.

In practice, the PBOC has introduced a pilot liquidity support system for non-bank financial institutions starting October 2024. A representative example is the “securities, fund, and insurance companies swap convenience” scheme, which allows institutions to use high-quality stocks or securities included in the CSI 300 index as collateral to exchange for government bonds or bills, which are highly liquid assets. This provides a basis for non-bank institutions facing short-term funding difficulties.

Meanwhile, the central bank has also explicitly stated that it will actively use traditional monetary policy tools such as interest rate cuts and reserve requirement ratio adjustments. The PBOC emphasizes that supporting gradual price recovery and high-quality economic growth through liquidity supply is a top priority this year, aiming to reduce overall social financing costs and improve access to finance for enterprises and households. In particular, it plans to expand the implementation of a clear system for publicly disclosing corporate and individual loan interest rates and related fees to create a more transparent financial environment.

The long-term debt issues of local governments are also highlighted as a key focus. The PBOC announced that it will continue to resolve the debt risks of local government financing platforms and will proceed in an orderly manner with some cleanup and exit work for these platforms. This is seen as a core measure to restore fiscal health and market confidence in local governments.

This series of policy signals is interpreted as China overcoming structural economic slowdown and beginning to address internal imbalances within the financial system. If the actual liquidity support mechanism is officially launched in the future, it is expected that the crisis response capacity of the non-bank sector will be strengthened, and the stability of China’s capital markets will be further enhanced.