China Unveils 15th Five-Year Plan for Financial Power

China officially released its 15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Financial Power on September 10, 2026, setting out a decade-long roadmap to transform the country’s financial system. The plan, formulated by the Central Financial Commission Office together with major financial regulators, was presented at a State Council Information Office press conference and aims to establish the overall framework of a modern financial system with Chinese characteristics by 2030, with full completion targeted for 2035.

According to Xinhua News, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Deputy Governor Lu Lei described the document as “the overall strategy and specific planning for financial work during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.” The press conference featured four senior officials: Lu Lei, NFRA Deputy Director Cong Lin, CSRC Vice Chairman Li Chao, and SAFE Deputy Director and Spokesperson Li Bin.

The Two-Stage Roadmap

The plan sets two major milestones. By 2030, China aims to form the overall framework of a modern financial system, with coordinated and effective regulation policy, an optimized financial structure, tight supervision, precise risk prevention, and a steadily expanding high-level financial opening. By 2035, the country intends to “basically complete” a modern financial system that is “highly adaptive, competitive, and inclusive,” laying a solid foundation for building a financial power.

The plan identifies six key tasks: improving the financial macro-regulation system, comprehensively strengthening financial supervision, effectively preventing and defusing financial risks, actively serving the real economy, promoting high-quality financial development, and expanding high-level financial opening.

PBOC: A Dual-Pillar Framework and RMB Internationalization

The PBOC issued its own 15th Five-Year Reform and Development Plan alongside nine supporting action plans, anchored to what President Xi Jinping has described as the six core elements of a financial power: a strong currency, a strong central bank, strong financial institutions, a strong international financial center, strong financial supervision, and a strong financial talent pool.

Lu Lei outlined five focus areas for the central bank, headlined by a “dual-pillar” framework combining monetary policy with macroprudential management. The PBOC will pursue counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustment, deepen market-based interest rate reform, and gradually reduce its reliance on quantitative intermediary targets in favor of interest rate regulation.

On exchange rates, Lu Lei was direct: “China has no need, and no intention, to gain trade competitive advantage through currency depreciation.” He added that RMB internationalization represents “an irreversible general trend.” As SAFE’s official transcript of the press conference records, the RMB is now China’s number one settlement currency for external receipts and payments, the world’s number two trade financing currency, and its number three payment currency. In the first seven months of 2026, RMB cross-border receipts and payments exceeded 50 trillion yuan, with goods trade RMB settlement reaching a historic high of about 30 percent of total cross-border receipts and payments.

CSRC: A Capital Market Reset by 2030

CSRC Vice Chairman Li Chao set an ambitious target: by 2030 — the 40th anniversary of the establishment of China’s capital market — the country aims to have “basically formed” a new pattern of high-quality capital market development with significantly improved comprehensive strength and international competitiveness.

As People Daily reported, echoing a Securities Daily report, Li Chao outlined eight priorities for the CSRC, including improving institutional inclusiveness, enhancing intrinsic market stability, and strengthening investor protection.

The CSRC cited substantial data on its recent progress. Since 2024, sci-tech innovative enterprises have accounted for over 90 percent of new listings, while the tech sector’s market capitalization has risen more than 80 percent. The average IPO review cycle on the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets has shortened to about six months. The regulator investigated 644 securities and futures illegal cases in the first eight months of 2026, with fines and confiscations approaching 10 billion yuan. Since the “new nine measures,” listed companies have paid out more than 7 trillion yuan in cumulative dividends and buybacks.

NFRA: Supervision With ‘Teeth’

NFRA Deputy Director Cong Lin emphasized risk prevention and strong supervision. “Financial supervision must have teeth and edges,” she said, invoking a phrase used by Chinese leaders to describe a tougher regulatory posture. The NFRA will target “key people, key matters, and key behaviors,” push for the reduction and upgrading of local small and medium financial institutions, and guard against systemic risk.

The regulator also reported that at end-2025, commercial banks’ provision coverage ratio stood at 205.21 percent and capital adequacy ratio at 15.46 percent, with insurance companies’ average comprehensive solvency ratio at 181.1 percent. State-owned big banks replenished 520 billion yuan in capital last year, with eight more central financial enterprises recently increasing capital by 360 billion yuan.

SAFE: A More Open, Secure Foreign Exchange System

SAFE’s Li Bin outlined a foreign exchange management system that is “more convenient, more open, safer, and smarter.” The agency will advance the bank FX business reform, deepen two-way opening of financial markets, strengthen cross-border capital flow monitoring, and improve balance-of-payments statistics.

As Sina News summarized, SAFE reported that in 2025, China’s cross-border receipts and payments scale and FX market trading volume reached US$15.6 trillion and US$42.6 trillion respectively, up 80 percent and 42 percent compared with 2020, with FX reserves remaining the world’s largest.

Analysis: A Blueprint for Financial Statecraft

The plan’s release is significant less for any single measure than for its comprehensive scope. By aligning the PBOC, CSRC, NFRA, and SAFE under a unified framework, Beijing is signaling that financial development and financial security are to be pursued as a single, coordinated project — an approach summed up in the recurring principle of “preventing risks, strengthening supervision, and promoting high-quality development.”

The emphasis on RMB internationalization comes amid accelerating global monetary diversification. With more than 80 central banks now holding RMB in reserves and the currency ranking third by weight in the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights basket, China is positioning its currency as a mainstream reserve asset rather than a peripheral one. The PBOC’s pledge not to weaponize the exchange rate for trade advantage is also a pointed message to trading partners wary of competitive devaluation.

At the same time, the plan faces a delicate balancing act. The push to reduce the number and risk of local small and medium financial institutions, expand capital market opening, and broaden medium- and long-term capital sources must proceed without destabilizing markets or triggering capital flight. The CSRC’s pledge to “firmly prevent” a situation in which delisted companies simply walk away underscores how much work remains on investor protection.

What’s Next

The plan’s targets are ambitious but its success depends on execution during the 2026–2030 window. Key signals to watch include the pace of RMB internationalization, the rollout of a high-quality bond market “tech board,” the trajectory of Shanghai and Hong Kong as international financial centers, and whether the CSRC’s 2030 deadline produces a measurably more resilient capital market. For now, officials across all four regulators delivered a consistent message: the 15th Five-Year Plan period will be defined by tighter supervision, safer growth, and a more internationally connected Chinese financial system.