People's Bank of China

Not to be confused with Bank of China, Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan), or National Bank of China.

"PBOC" redirects here. For other uses, see PBOC (disambiguation).

People's Bank of China
中国人民银行
Zhōngguó Rénmín Yínháng

Bank logo Bank logo People's Bank of China headquarters in Beijing
Headquarters	Beijing and Shanghai
Established	December 1, 1948
Governor	Zhou Xiaochuan
Central bank of	People's Republic of China
Currency	Renminbi (RMB) CNY (ISO 4217)
Reserves	US$3.201 trillion
Bank rate	6.0%
Interest on reserves	3.5%
Preceded by	Central Bank of the Republic of China
Website	www.pbc.gov.cn
For other currencies named "Yuan" and their respective central banks, see Chinese Yuan.

People's Bank of China
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	中国人民银行
Traditional Chinese	中國人民銀行
Literal meaning	China People Bank
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó Rénmín Yínháng
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	人民银行
Traditional Chinese	人民銀行
Literal meaning	People Bank
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Rénmín Yínháng
Second alternative Chinese name
Chinese	央行
Literal meaning	Central Bank
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yāngháng
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ཀྲུང་གོ་མི་དམངས། མི་རྣམས།དངུལ་ཁང་།
Zhuang name
Zhuang	Cunghgoz Yinzminz Yinzhangz
Mongolian name
Mongolian script	ᠳᠤᠮᠳᠠᠳᠤ ᠤᠯᠤᠰ ᠤᠨ ᠠᠷᠠᠳ ᠤᠨ ᠪᠠᠩᠬᠢ
Uyghur name
Uyghur	جۇڭگو خەلق بانكا

The People's Bank of China (PBC or PBOC, Chinese: 中国人民银行) is the central bank of the People's Republic of China with the power to control monetary policy and regulate financial institutions in mainland China. The People's Bank of China has more financial assets than any single public institution, and is second only to the Federal Reserve System of the United States in terms of overall central bank assets.

History

The bank was established on December 1, 1948, based on the consolidation of the Huabei Bank, the Beihai Bank and the Xibei Farmer Bank. The headquarters was first located in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, and then moved to Beijing in 1949. Between 1950 and 1978 the PBC was the only bank in the People's Republic of China and was responsible for both central banking and commercial banking operations. All other banks within Mainland China such as the Bank of China were either organized as divisions of the PBC or were non-deposit taking agencies.

In the 1980s, as part of economic reform, the commercial banking functions of the PBC were split off into four independent but state-owned banks and in 1983, the State Council promulgated that the PBC would function as the central bank of China. Mr. Chen Yuan was instrumental in modernizing the bank in the early 1990s. Its central bank status was legally confirmed on March 18, 1995 by the 3rd Plenum of the 8th National People's Congress. In 1998, the PBC underwent a major restructuring. All provincial and local branches were abolished, and the PBC opened nine regional branches, whose boundaries did not correspond to local administrative boundaries. In 2003, the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress approved an amendment law for strengthening the role of PBC in the making and implementation of monetary policy for safeguarding the overall financial stability and provision of financial services.

The People's Bank of China (PBC) is the largest central bank at US$3.201 trillion.

Management

The top management of the PBC is composed of the governor and a certain number of deputy governors. The governor of the PBC is appointed into or removed by the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee. The candidate for the governor of the PBC is nominated by the Premier of the People's Republic of China and approved by the National People's Congress. When the National People's Congress is in adjournment, the Standing Committee sanctions the candidacy for the governor of the PBC. The deputy governors of the PBC are appointed to or removed from office by the Premier of the State Council.

The PBC adopts a governor responsibility system under which the governor supervises the overall work of the PBC while the deputy governors provide assistance to the governor to fulfill his or her responsibility.

The current governor is Zhou Xiaochuan:. Deputy governors of the management team include: Yi Gang, Wang Huaqing, Pan Gongsheng, Fan Yifei, Guo Qingping, Zhang Xiaohui, and Yang Ziqiang. Former top-level managers include: Ms. Hu Xiaolian, Liu Shiyu, Li Dongrong and Ms. Jin Qi.

Structure

People's Bank of China Tianjin branch, formerly the Central Bank Tientsin Branch building until 1949, now a protected heritage site

The PBC has established 9 regional branches, one each in Tianjin, Shenyang, Shanghai, Nanjing, Jinan, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Xi'an, 2 operations offices in Beijing and Chongqing, 303 municipal sub-branches and 1809 county-level sub-branches.

It has 6 overseas representative offices (PBC Representative Office for America, PBC Representative Office (London) for Europe, PBC Tokyo Representative Office, PBC Frankfurt Representative Office, PBC Representative Office for Africa, Liaison Office of the PBC in the Caribbean Development Bank).

The PBC consists of 18 functional departments (bureaus) as below:

• General Administration Department
• Legal Affairs Department
• Monetary Policy Department
• Financial Market Department
• Financial Stability Bureau
• Financial Survey and Statistics Department
• Accounting and Treasury Department
• Payment System Department
• Technology Department
• Currency, Gold and Silver Bureau
• State Treasury Bureau
• International Department
• Internal Auditing Department
• Personnel Department
• Research Bureau
• Credit Information System Bureau
• Anti-Money Laundering Bureau (Security Bureau)
• Education Department of the CPC PBC Committee

The following enterprises and institutions are directly under the PBC:

• China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center
• PBC Graduate School
• China Financial Publishing House
• Financial News
• China National Clearing Center
• China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation
• China Gold Coin Incorporation
• China Financial Computerization Corporation
• China Foreign Exchange Trade System

Microfinance

• Rural Credit Cooperatives

Financial inclusion

The PBOC is active in promoting financial inclusion policy and a member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.

List of Governors

№	Name	Took office	Left office	Premier	Notes
1	Nan Hanchen (南汉宸)	October 1949	October 1954	Zhou Enlai
2	Cao Juru (曹菊如)	October 1954	October 1964	Zhou Enlai
3	Hu Lijiao (胡立教)	October 1964	1966	Zhou Enlai
post abolished
4	Chen Xiyu (陈希愈)	May 1973	January 1978	Zhou Enlai Hua Guofeng
5	Li Baohua (李葆华)	January 1978	April 1982	Hua Guofeng Zhao Ziyang
6	Lü Peijian (吕培俭)	April 1982	March 1985	Zhao Ziyang
7	Chen Muhua (陈慕华)(female)	March 1985	April 1988	Zhao Ziyang	State Councilor (1982–1988)
8	Li Guixian (李贵鲜)	April 1988	July 1993	Li Peng	State Councilor (1988–1998)
9	Zhu Rongji (朱镕基)	July 1993	June 1995	Li Peng	First-ranked Vice-Premier (1993–1998)
10	Dai Xianglong (戴相龙)	June 1995	December 2002	Li Peng Zhu Rongji
11	Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川)	December 2002	Incumbent	Zhu Rongji Wen Jiabao Li Keqiang	Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee (2013–incumbent)

Interest rates

Previously, interest rates set by the bank were always divisible by nine, instead of by 25 as in the rest of the world. However, this is no longer applied since the central bank started changing rates by 0.25 percentage points on October 19, 2010 (which was a rate increase).

PBC latest interest rate changes

Change date	Interest rate
August 25, 2015	4.600%
June 27, 2015	4.850%
May 10, 2015	5.100%
February 28, 2015	5.350%
November 21, 2014	5.600%
July 6, 2012	6.000%
June 8, 2012	6.310%
July 7, 2011	6.560%
April 6, 2011	6.310%
February 9, 2011	6.060%
December 26, 2010	5.810%

Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR)

PBC latest Reserve Requirement Ratio changes

Change date	Reserve Requirement Ratio	Extra Cash for financial system
December 2008	21.0%
December 2011	20.5%	350 billion yuan ($55 billion)
May 2012	20.0%	400 billion yuan ($63.4 billion)
February 2015	19.5%	600 billion yuan ($96 billion)
April 2015	18.5%	1.5 trillion yuan ($240 billion)
August 2015	18.0%	650 billion de yuans ($101 billion)

Foreign-exchange reserves

Foreign-exchange reserves from 2004

Date	Foreign-exchange reserves (US$ billion)
2004-01	415.7
2004-02	426.6
2004-03	439.8
2004-04	449
2004-05	458.6
2004-06	470.6
2004-07	483
2004-08	496.2
2004-09	514.5
2004-10	542.4
2004-11	573.9
2004-12	609.9
2005-01	623.6
2005-02	642.6
2005-03	659.1
2005-04	670.8
2005-05	691
2005-06	711
2005-09	769
2005-12	818.9
2006-01	845.2
2006-02	853.7
2006-03	875.1
2006-04	895
2006-05	925
2006-06	941.1
2006-07	954.6
2006-08	972
2006-09	987.9
2006-10	1009.6
2006-11	1038.8
2006-12	1066.3
2007-01	1104.7
2007-02	1157.4
2007-03	1202
2007-04	1246.6
2007-05	1292.7
2007-06	1332.6
2007-07	1385.2
2007-08	1408.6
2007-09	1433.6
2007-10	1454.9
2007-11	1497
2007-12	1528.2
2008-01	1589.8
2008-02	1647.1
2008-03	1682.2
2008-04	1756.7
2008-05	1797
2008-06	1808.8
2008-07	1845.2
2008-08	1884.2
2008-09	1905.6
2008-10	1879.7
2008-11	1884.7
2008-12	1946
2009-01	1913.5
2009-02	1912.1
2009-03	1952.7
2009-04	2008.9
2009-05	2089.5
2009-06	2131.6
2009-07	2174.6
2009-08	2210.8
2009-09	2272.6
2009-10	2328.3
2009-11	2388.8
2009-12	2399.2
2010-01	2415.2
2010-02	2424.6
2010-03	2447.1
2010-04	2490.5
2010-05	2439.5
2010-06	2454.3
2010-07	2538.9
2010-08	2547.8
2010-09	2648.3
2010-10	2760.9
2010-11	2767.8
2010-12	2847.3
2011-01	2931.7
2011-02	2991.4
2011-03	3044.7
2011-06	3197.5
2011-07	3245.3
2011-08	3262.5
2011-09	3201.7
2011-10	3273.8
2011-11	3220.9
2011-12	3181.1
2012-01	3253.6
2012-02	3309.7
2012-03	3305
2012-04	3298.9
2012-05	3206.1
2012-06	3240
2012-07	3240
2012-08	3272.9
2012-09	3285.1
2012-10	3287.4
2012-11	3297.7
2012-12	3311.6
2013-01	3410
2013-02	3395.4
2013-03	3442.6
2013-04	3534.5
2013-05	3514.8
2013-06	3496.7
2013-07	3547.8
2013-08	3553
2013-09	3662.7
2013-10	3736.6
2013-11	3789.5
2013-12	3821.3
2014-01	3866.6
2014-02	3913.7
2014-03	3948.1
2014-04	3978.8
2014-05	3983.9
2014-06	3993.2
2014-07	3966.3
2014-08	3968.8
2014-09	3887.7
2014-10	3852.9
2014-11	3847.4
2014-12	3843
2015-01	3813.41
2015-02	3801.5
2015-03	3730.04
2015-04	3748.14
2015-05	3711.14
2015-06	3693.84
2015-07	3651.31

Further reading

• Stephen Bell and Hui Feng. The Rise of the People's Bank of China: The Politics of Institutional Change (Harvard University Press; 2013) 384 pages; Recent history; uses interviews with key figures

See also

• China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation
• Renminbi
• Bank of China, state owned commercial bank
• Hong Kong Monetary Authority
• Monetary Authority of Macao
• Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the central bank of the Republic of China