China’s 15th Five-Year Plan for a Financial Powerhouse: What It Changes for Foreign Financial Institutions

2026-09-20 Financial License / 金融牌照

  • On 10 September 2026 the State Council Information Office held a press conference where the PBC, the NFRA, the CSRC and SAFE introduced the newly issued 15th Five-Year Plan for building a financial powerhouse.
    2026 年 9 月 10 日，国务院新闻办公室举行新闻发布会，中国人民银行、金融监管总局、中国证监会、国家外汇管理局介绍了已正式出台的《金融强国建设”十五五”规划》。
  • The Plan’s overall objective is to form the general framework of a Chinese-characteristic modern financial system by 2030, with 2035 as the date to basically build such a system.
    规划的总体目标是到 2030 年形成中国特色现代金融体系的总体框架，并以 2035 年基本建成该体系为远期目标。
  • On capital-account opening, direct investment is already essentially convertible; cross-border securities investment rests on an institutional-investor system, connectivity mechanisms and direct market access; and cross-border financing is under full-caliber macro-prudential management.
    在资本项目开放上，直接投资项下已实现基本可兑换；跨境证券投资形成以机构投资者制度、互联互通机制、境外投资者直接入市为主的制度安排；跨境融资实施全口径宏观审慎管理。
  • The next step is framed as “four deepens”: from channel opening to institutional opening, from business convenience to entity convenience, from foreign-exchange management to CNY-FX coordination, and from the exchange step to full-chain management services.
    下一步概括为”四个深化”：从渠道开放向制度型开放深化、从业务便利向主体便利深化、从外汇管理向本外币协同深化、从汇兑环节向全链条管理服务深化。
  • In direct investment, the administration will simplify FDI registration, shrink the negative list for fund use, raise FX convenience for cross-border investment, and roll out new cross-border investment facilitation measures.
    在直接投资领域，将简化外商直接投资登记流程、缩减资金使用负面清单、提高跨境投资资金汇兑便利，并将陆续出台新的跨境投资便利化措施。
  • In cross-border financing and securities, the authorities will expand tech-enterprise cross-border financing facilitation, broaden the green foreign-debt FX pilot, upgrade the multinational CNY-FX integrated cash-pool policy, and raise the openness of securities issuance and trading markets.
    在跨境融资与跨境证券领域，将拓展科技企业跨境融资便利化、扩大绿色外债外汇便利化试点、升级跨国公司本外币一体化资金池政策，并提升证券发行与交易市场的开放度。
  • The NFRA is soliciting public comments on a draft Disclosure Management Measures for Banking and Insurance Institutions from 4 September 2026; the draft is a consultation text, not yet in force, covering 23 types of institutions with the chairman as first responsible person.
    金融监管总局自 2026 年 9 月 4 日起就《银行保险机构信息披露管理办法（征求意见稿）》公开征求意见；该稿为征求意见稿、尚未生效，覆盖 23 类机构，明确董事长为信息披露管理第一责任人。

China’s 15th Five-Year Plan for a Financial Powerhouse: What It Changes for Foreign Financial Institutions | 中国金融强国建设”十五五”规划：对外资金融机构意味着什么

Overview

On 10 September 2026, the State Council Information Office convened a press conference in its “Getting the 15th Five-Year Plan off to a Good Start” series, with the People’s Bank of China (PBC), the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) presenting how the financial sector will implement the 15th Five-Year Plan and advance the building of a financial powerhouse. The centerpiece is the newly issued *15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Financial Powerhouse*, formulated by the Office of the Central Financial Commission together with the financial institutions under its unified deployment.

For foreign financial institutions weighing entry or expansion in China, the Plan is less about a single new licence and more about the direction of the policy environment: steadier capital-account opening and a shift from channel-based to institution-based convenience. This article distils the parts of the Plan that bear most directly on foreign-invested financial institutions.

The Plan and its objectives

The Plan adheres to the working主线 of “preventing risks, strengthening supervision and promoting high-quality development.” Its overall objective is to form the general framework of a Chinese-characteristic modern financial system by 2030 — with effective policy coordination, a rational and optimised system structure, rigorous supervision, precise risk prevention, a complete legal system, steadily broadened high-level opening, and rising international influence. By 2035, the objective is to basically build a modern financial system with a high degree of adaptability, competitiveness and inclusiveness.

The PBC has issued its own 15th Five-Year reform and development plan together with nine supporting action plans, covering the monetary-policy and macro-prudential “twin pillars,” the “five articles” of financial services (technology, green, inclusive, pension and digital finance), an open and inclusive financial market, high-level financial opening, and optimised financial infrastructure.

Capital-account opening: the established direction

In the press conference, SAFE set out the established shape of capital-account opening. Of the three main components — direct investment, securities investment and cross-border financing — direct investment is already essentially convertible. Cross-border securities investment has taken shape as an arrangement centred on an institutional-investor system, connectivity mechanisms and direct market access by overseas investors. Cross-border financing is administered under full-caliber macro-prudential management.

On this base, SAFE described the next step as “four deepens”:

  1. From channel opening to institutional opening — moving beyond discrete access channels toward rules-based, system-level openness.
  2. From business convenience to entity convenience — extending facilitation from individual transactions to the qualifying entity as a whole.
  3. From foreign-exchange management to CNY-FX coordination — aligning renminbi and foreign-exchange policy so one rule set serves both.
  4. From the exchange step to full-chain management services — covering the whole cross-border flow rather than only the conversion moment.

This framing signals that future liberalisation will be structural and predictable rather than deal-by-deal.

Direct-investment facilitation

Within the direct-investment component, SAFE announced concrete steps that matter directly to foreign-invested enterprises and their investors:

  • Simplify the foreign-invested-enterprise (FDI) registration process and make it easier to handle.
  • Shrink the negative list for the use of funds raised through foreign investment, giving invested enterprises more freedom over legitimate capital use.
  • Raise the convenience of foreign-exchange settlement and conversion for cross-border investment, so that “bringing in” and “going out” develop in coordination.
  • Roll out new cross-border investment facilitation measures in the next phase in response to enterprise demand.

For a foreign financial institution establishing or capitalising a China subsidiary, these measures bear on how quickly and flexibly capital can be registered, moved and used. The emphasis on coordinating “bringing in” and “going out” also supports institutions that use a China platform both to serve inbound investors and to back outbound activity.

Cross-border financing and securities

Cross-border financing. SAFE will expand the cross-border financing facilitation policy for technology enterprises, broaden the pilot scope of foreign-exchange facilitation for green foreign debt, and advance the iterative upgrade of the multinational enterprise CNY-FX integrated cash-pool policy. The cash-pool upgrade is of particular interest to foreign groups operating China treasury centres, as it bears on how a China entity can concentrate and manage cross-border funds within a unified, regulated pool.

Cross-border securities. The authorities will raise the openness of the securities issuance market, align the opening rules of securities trading markets with international norms, and advance the integration of opening channels, optimisation of institutions and unification of rules, lifting the two-way openness of the financial market. The CSRC committed to optimising the qualified foreign-investor and connectivity mechanisms and supporting enterprises in using both onshore and offshore markets and resources.

The combined message is a steady widening of both the funding side (debt, foreign-exchange, cash pooling) and the market-access side (issuance, trading, connectivity) for foreign participants.

Institution-side: unified disclosure draft

Complementing the opening agenda, the NFRA on 4 September 2026 began soliciting public comments on the Draft Disclosure Management Measures for Banking and Insurance Institutions (征求意见稿). The draft is explicitly a consultation text and is not yet in force; the comment period runs to 3 October 2026.

The draft consolidates earlier separate disclosure rules for banks, insurers and trusts into a single set of standards and extends the scope to the various types of banking and insurance institutions supervised by the NFRA — reported to cover 23 categories of institutions, including financial holding companies, nationwide commercial banks, foreign-invested banks, trust companies, wealth-management companies, life and property insurers, and reinsurers. It strengthens disclosure-management requirements, requires institutions to establish a disclosure-management system, and clarifies that the chairman of the board is the first responsible person for disclosure management. It also sets out the supervisory framework — regulatory evaluation, on-site and off-site supervision, supervisory inquiries, supervisory measures and administrative penalties — with differentiated disclosure requirements by institution type.

Because the text is a draft, institutions should treat it as a forward-looking compliance input rather than a change to current obligations.

Practical guidance for foreign institutions

  1. Read the Plan as a direction, not a permit. The 15th Five-Year Plan sets the policy trajectory; individual licences and qualifications still follow the sector-specific application routes.
  2. Map the entry route by sub-sector. Banking (foreign-invested bank subsidiary or branch), securities/fund/futures, insurance and reinsurance, private fund management, and payment each have distinct application paths and capital, shareholder and prudential requirements.
  3. Use QFLP and QFII where they fit. The qualified foreign-limited-partner and qualified foreign-investor channels remain practical on-ramps for investment and market access, within the broader connectivity and direct-access architecture described at the press conference.
  4. Plan the cross-border cash pool early. For groups running a China treasury centre, the upgraded CNY-FX integrated cash-pool policy is the structure to model for intra-group cross-border fund management.
  5. Prepare for unified disclosure. Foreign-invested banks and insurers should track the disclosure draft and ready board-level ownership of disclosure management, even though the measures are not yet effective.
  6. Watch the FDI-registration and fund-use changes. Simplified FDI registration and a shorter negative list for fund use will affect how a China subsidiary is capitalised and how its funds are deployed.

Sources

中国金融强国建设”十五五”规划：对外资金融机构意味着什么

概述

2026 年 9 月 10 日，国务院新闻办公室举行”开局起步’十五五'”系列主题新闻发布会，中国人民银行、金融监管总局、中国证监会、国家外汇管理局介绍金融领域如何贯彻落实”十五五”规划、推动金融强国建设。核心文件是已正式出台的《金融强国建设”十五五”规划》，由中央金融办会同各金融单位制定，在中央金融委统一部署下推出。

对考量进入或扩张在华业务的外资金融机构而言，这份规划的重点不在一个新牌照，而在政策环境的方向：更稳健的资本项目开放、从渠道便利向主体便利的转轨。本文梳理规划中与外资金融机构最直接相关的部分。

规划及其目标

规划坚持”防风险、强监管、促高质量发展”的工作主线。其总体目标是到 2030 年形成中国特色现代金融体系的总体框架——政策协同有效、体系结构合理优化、监管严密有力、风险防控精准高效、法治体系完备、高水平开放稳步扩大、国际影响力和竞争力持续提高。到 2035 年，基本建成具有高度适应性、竞争力、普惠性的现代金融体系，为金融强国建设奠定坚实基础。

中国人民银行配套印发了本行的”十五五”改革发展规划及九份行动方案，覆盖货币政策与宏观审慎”双支柱”、金融”五篇大文章”（科技、绿色、普惠、养老、数字金融）、开放包容的金融市场、金融高水平开放与优化的金融基础设施。

资本项目开放：既定方向

发布会上，外汇局阐述了资本项目开放的既有形态。在直接投资、证券投资、跨境融资三大组成部分中，直接投资项下已实现基本可兑换；跨境证券投资形成以机构投资者制度、互联互通机制、境外投资者直接入市为主的制度安排；跨境融资实施全口径宏观审慎管理。

在此基础之上，外汇局将下一步概括为”四个深化”：

  1. 从渠道开放向制度型开放深化——超越离散的准入通道，走向规则层面的制度性开放。
  2. 从业务便利向主体便利深化——把便利从单笔交易扩展到合格主体整体。
  3. 从外汇管理向本外币协同深化——统筹人民币与外汇政策，用一套规则服务两类业务。
  4. 从汇兑环节向全链条管理服务深化——覆盖整条跨境资金流，而非仅兑换环节。

这一表述对外资机构意义重大，因为它表明未来的开放将是结构性、可预期的，而非逐笔个案。

直接投资领域便利化

在直接投资组成部分内，外汇局宣布了与外商投资企业和其投资者直接相关的具体举措：

  • 简化外商直接投资登记办理流程，提升办理便利度。
  • 缩减资金使用负面清单，给予被投资企业更多合法使用资金的自由。
  • 提高跨境投资资金汇兑便利，促进”引进来”和”走出去”协同发展。
  • 下一阶段陆续出台新的跨境投资便利化措施，回应企业诉求。

对设立或在华注资子公司的外资金融机构而言，这些措施关系资本登记、调拨与使用的速度与灵活度。强调”引进来”与”走出去”协同，也支持那些以中国平台同时服务入境投资者与支撑出境活动的机构。

跨境融资与跨境证券

跨境融资。 外汇局将拓展科技企业跨境融资便利化政策，扩大绿色外债外汇便利化试点范围，并推进跨国公司本外币一体化资金池政策迭代升级。资金池升级对运营中国财资集团的外资机构尤为关键，关系中国实体如何在统一、受监管的池内归集与管理跨境资金。

跨境证券。 监管将提升证券发行市场开放度，推动证券交易市场开放规则与国际基本接轨，推进开放渠道整合、制度优化与规则统一，提升金融市场双向开放水平。证监会亦表示将优化合格境外投资者与互联互通等制度机制，支持企业用好境内境外两个市场、两种资源。

综合信息是：对外参与者而言，资金端（外债、外汇、资金池）与市场准入端（发行、交易、互联互通）都在稳步拓宽。

机构端：统一披露征求意见稿

与开放议程相配套，金融监管总局自 2026 年 9 月 4 日起就《银行保险机构信息披露管理办法（征求意见稿）》公开征求意见。该稿明确为征求意见稿、尚未生效，意见反馈截止时间为 2026 年 10 月 3 日。

征求意见稿整合了此前银行、保险、信托各自分散的信息披露规定，形成统一标准，并将适用范围拓展至金融监管总局监管的各类型银行保险机构——据披露覆盖 23 类机构，包括金融控股公司、全国性商业银行、外资银行、信托公司、理财公司、人身保险公司、财产保险公司、再保险公司等。它强化了信息披露管理要求，要求机构建立信息披露管理制度，并明确董事长为信息披露管理第一责任人。同时规定了监管评价、现场检查与非现场监管、监管问询、监管措施、行政处罚等监管框架，并按机构类型明确差异化披露要求。

由于该文本为征求意见稿，机构应将其视为前瞻性合规输入，而非对现行义务的变更。

给外资机构的实操建议

  1. 把规划读作方向而非许可。 “十五五”规划确立政策轨迹；具体的牌照与资质仍依各细分行业的申请路径办理。
  2. 按子行业梳理准入路径。 银行（外资银行法人或分行）、证券基金期货、保险与再保险、私募基金管理、支付各有不同的申请路径及资本、股东与审慎要求。
  3. 在适用处用好 QFLP 与 QFII。 合格境外有限合伙人（QFLP）与合格境外投资者（QFII）渠道仍是投资与准入的实用入口，处于发布会所描述的互联互通与直接入市总体架构之内。
  4. 尽早规划跨境资金池。 对运营中国财资集团的机构，升级后的本外币一体化资金池政策是集团内跨境资金管理应建模的结构。
  5. 为统一披露做准备。 外资银行与保险公司应跟踪披露征求意见稿，并备好董事会层面的披露管理责任，尽管办法尚未生效。
  6. 关注 FDI 登记与资金使用变化。 简化的外商直接投资登记与缩短的资金使用负面清单，将影响中国子公司的注资方式与资金使用安排。

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