August 10, 2026 (InvestinChina.asia) — The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has issued the People’s Bank of China “15th Five-Year” Reform and Development Plan, accompanied by nine supporting action plans covering specific sub-sectors, setting out the central bank’s core agenda for 2026–2030 and crystallising its ambition to accelerate the building of a financial powerhouse. The plan identifies five priority areas: a sound monetary policy and macro-prudential framework, financial support for the real economy, an open and resilient modern financial market, high-level financial opening, and an optimised financial-infrastructure and central-bank service system.
1. A “dual-pillar” framework: monetary policy meets macro-prudence
Topping the agenda is the construction of a scientific and robust monetary policy system alongside a comprehensive macro-prudential management framework. The PBOC will refine its modern monetary policy framework with Chinese characteristics, improve the base-money injection mechanism, and leverage the aggregate and structural functions of monetary and credit policy instruments. It will also deepen market-based interest-rate formation, regulation and transmission.
On the exchange rate, the plan reaffirms the decisive role of the market in exchange-rate formation while committing to keep the RMB exchange rate “basically stable at an adaptive and balanced level”.
On macro-prudence, the central bank pledges to broaden its macro-prudential and financial-stability functions, extend the coverage of macro-prudential management, enrich its toolkit, establish a macro-prudential monitoring and evaluation mechanism, strengthen the financial-stability safeguard system, and prudently defuse financial risks in key areas.
2. Serving the real economy: “five-piece” financial architecture
The plan calls for a financial policy system that “precisely and forcefully” supports major strategies, key areas and weak links. At its heart is a technology-finance regime tailored to innovation — including the high-quality development of a “technology board” in the bond market.
The plan simultaneously advances green finance for the low-carbon transition, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, while strengthening financial support to bolster and expand consumption.
3. An open, inclusive, resilient modern financial market
The third pillar focuses on building a multi-category, multi-tier financial market system, further diversifying market participants and functions, strengthening institutional development, and safeguarding the stable operation of financial markets.
4. High-level opening: the RMB goes global
The plan makes an explicit push for RMB internationalisation — extending the currency’s use in international trade, investment and financing. It promises deeper two-way opening of financial markets, strengthened cross-border interconnection of financial infrastructure, and development of offshore RMB markets.
A multi-tier, wide-coverage cross-border RMB payment system is to be built out, with the plan explicitly calling for accelerating the construction of Shanghai as an international financial centre and consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong’s status as an international financial hub.
Beijing also commits to actively implementing the Global Governance Initiative, participating in and advancing the reform of global financial governance. Throughout, the plan stresses coordinating opening with security and strengthening the capacity to maintain financial stability under open conditions.
5. Infrastructure and central-bank services: digital RMB and beyond
The final pillar targets a financial-infrastructure system that is rationally distributed, effectively governed, advanced, reliable and resilient. The PBOC will upgrade its financial statistics, payments, treasury and cash services, steadily develop the digital RMB, advance the high-quality development of the credit-reporting industry, and tighten anti-money-laundering supervision.
The plan also underscores the governance foundation for central-bank operations, pledging to comprehensively advance the building of a law-based and digital central bank.
The bigger picture
The “15th Five-Year Plan” period spans 2026 to 2030 — a pivotal five years for basically achieving socialist modernisation. The PBOC’s blueprint, paired with nine detailed action plans, translates the national “15th Five-Year Plan” outline into a concrete central-bank roadmap. Its overarching objective: accelerate the improvement of the central-bank system and build China into a financial powerhouse that serves high-quality economic development.
Taken together, the five pillars sketch a coherent trajectory — from anchoring monetary and macro-prudential stability, to channelling capital precisely into innovation, green growth, inclusion and pensions; from deepening and opening markets, to pushing the RMB onto the global stage; and from modernising plumbing such as payments and credit reporting to embedding digital currency at the core of the system.