On July 29, the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China held a press conference for the third quarter of 2026 to introduce financial operations in Shanghai in the first half of this year. Shi Jiandong, deputy director of the macroprudential management department at the central bank's Shanghai headquarters, said that since the Shanghai Free Trade Account function upgrade pilot was officially launched in December 2025, it has been widely welcomed by enterprises. Cross-border and domestic business operations have been stable, business types are diverse, and capital transfers are efficient, and the expected results have been achieved. According to reports, at present, 11 banks and 42 high-quality enterprises have participated in the pilot project. The service targets cover various types of economic entities such as central state-owned enterprises, foreign capital, private enterprises, etc., serving various industries such as automobile manufacturing, modern agriculture, and semiconductors. The scale of cross-border capital payments under the pilot project has already exceeded RMB 133 billion. “In the next step, the Shanghai headquarters of the central bank will continue to deepen the pilot free trade account function upgrade, steadily promote business expansion and quality, expand policy benefits, guide more high-quality enterprises to participate, effectively raise the level of cross-border trade investment and financing facilitation, and support the development of the real economy; continue to actively promote the application of digital yuan in the pilot to improve the efficiency and safety of cross-border payments; and use the pilot as a starting point to explore a systematic open path of cross-border capital flow management to better serve the country's high level of financial openness.” Shi Jiandong said.

On July 29, the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China held a press conference for the third quarter of 2026 to introduce financial operations in Shanghai in the first half of this year. Shi Jiandong, deputy director of the macroprudential management department at the central bank's Shanghai headquarters, said that since the Shanghai Free Trade Account function upgrade pilot was officially launched in December 2025, it has been widely welcomed by enterprises. Cross-border and domestic business operations have been stable, business types are diverse, and capital transfers are efficient, and the expected results have been achieved. According to reports, at present, 11 banks and 42 high-quality enterprises have participated in the pilot project. The service targets cover various types of economic entities such as central state-owned enterprises, foreign capital, private enterprises, etc., serving various industries such as automobile manufacturing, modern agriculture, and semiconductors. The scale of cross-border capital payments under the pilot project has already exceeded RMB 133 billion. “In the next step, the Shanghai headquarters of the central bank will continue to deepen the pilot free trade account function upgrade, steadily promote business expansion and quality, expand policy benefits, guide more high-quality enterprises to participate, effectively raise the level of cross-border trade investment and financing facilitation, and support the development of the real economy; continue to actively promote the application of digital yuan in the pilot to improve the efficiency and safety of cross-border payments; and use the pilot as a starting point to explore a systematic open path of cross-border capital flow management to better serve the country's high level of financial openness.” Shi Jiandong said.