PBOC Shanghai: Free Trade Account Upgrade Pilot Exceeds RMB 133 Billion in Cross-Border Payments, Cross-Border
The People's Bank of China Shanghai Head Office announced on July 29, 2026, that the Free Trade Account function upgrade pilot, launched in December 2025, has facilitated cross-border fund receipts and payments exceeding RMB 133 billion. The pilot involves 11 banks and 42 high-quality enterprises across sectors including automotive, modern agriculture, and semiconductors. Cross-border RMB transactions account for 83% of total payments. The upgraded accounts operate on a 'free flow across the border, controlled flow within' principle, allowing enterprises to transfer funds with payment instructions.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) Shanghai Head Office held a press conference on July 29, 2026, for the third quarter of 2026, reporting on Shanghai's financial performance in the first half of the year. The Free Trade Account function upgrade pilot, officially launched in December 2025, has now attracted 11 banks and 42 high-quality enterprises, serving a diverse range of economic entities including central state-owned enterprises, foreign-invested firms, and private companies, across industries such as automotive manufacturing, modern agriculture, and semiconductors. The scale of cross-border fund receipts and payments under the pilot has exceeded RMB 133 billion.
The pilot's coverage has expanded from traditional goods trade to services trade, offshore trade, processing trade, and capital account items such as cross-border financing and overseas lending. Among transactions conducted by pilot enterprises through the upgraded accounts, cross-border RMB accounted for 83%. The upgraded Free Trade Accounts follow the principle of 'free flow across the border, controlled flow within the border,' enabling enterprises to process fund transfers with payment instructions alone.
Going forward, the PBOC Shanghai Head Office will continue to deepen the Free Trade Account function upgrade pilot, steadily expand the scope and quality of the business, broaden the policy's reach, and guide more high-quality enterprises to participate. At the same time, it will actively promote the use of digital yuan (e-CNY) in the pilot to enhance the efficiency and security of cross-border payments, and use the pilot as a lever to explore institutional opening pathways for cross-border capital flow management.