China unveils '15th Five-Year' plan for building a strong financial system, outlining reform roadmap

The "15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Financial Powerhouse" has been officially released, providing a clear "blueprint" for China's financial development. The document not only deepens the implementation of the Central Financial Work Conference's directives but also offers a systematic roadmap for financial reform and development over the next five years, grounded in the broader context of Chinese-style modernization. Its significance is far-reaching.

Serving the Real Economy as the Fundamental Mission

Finance is the lifeblood of the national economy and a core component of national competitiveness. The Plan clearly addresses what finance should do during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, how it should be done, and for whom. It sets the direction for building a modern financial system with Chinese characteristics that is highly adaptive, competitive, and inclusive—ensuring that finance becomes a strong pillar supporting high-quality development.

Key priorities include:

• Advancing the "five major articles": Sci-tech finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance
• Precisely serving the development of new quality productive forces
• Improving capital market foundational systems to increase the proportion of direct financing and support breakthroughs in core technologies for tech enterprises
• Shifting service focus downward to alleviate financing difficulties for small and micro enterprises and empower rural revitalization

Balancing Development and Security

Without a secure foundation, reform and development cannot proceed. The Plan calls for:

• Establishing a rigorous and effective modern financial regulatory system
• Clarifying responsibilities across all parties and strengthening central-local coordination
• Prudently advancing risk prevention in key areas, including:
• Local government debt
• Real estate
• Small and medium-sized financial institutions
• Achieving early identification, early warning, and early disposal of risks
• Improving the macro-control framework to maintain reasonable liquidity and enhance policy foresight and coordination

The goal is to resolve existing risks while strictly controlling new ones, building a "firewall" for financial security.

Deepening Reform and Opening-Up

Building a financial powerhouse requires neither a closed-door approach nor a wholesale imitation of foreign models. The Plan emphasizes a distinctively Chinese path:

Domestically:

• Optimize the layout of financial institutions
• Guide institutions to focus on their core businesses
• Improve modern financial infrastructure
• Enhance wealth management systems to meet the public's demand for reasonable growth in property income

Internationally:

• Steadily expand institutional opening-up
• Deepen two-way opening of financial markets
• Strengthen China's voice in global financial governance
• Maintain independent control and safeguard the boundaries of openness—ensuring the system can be opened up, managed effectively, and operated stably

Moving Forward with Determination

As the 15th Five-Year Plan period begins, all financial institutions are urged to align with the Plan's deployment and advance tasks step by step. This requires both bold experimentation to resolve institutional bottlenecks and sustained perseverance to continuously consolidate the foundations of a financial powerhouse.

Source: Economic Daily (September 27, 2026, Page 1, by Jin Guanping)