Lu Lei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, announced at a State Council Information Office press briefing on September 10 that the "Plan for Building a Financial Powerhouse" under China's 15th Five-Year Plan has been formally issued. It is the guiding document for China's financial sector development during the 2026-2030 period, and the first five-year plan built specifically around the goal of becoming a "financial powerhouse," building on earlier medium- and long-term financial reform documents.
According to the briefing, the plan systematically lays out six key tasks for building a financial powerhouse during the 15th Five-Year period: strengthening the macro-financial regulatory system, comprehensively enhancing financial oversight, effectively preventing and defusing financial risk, actively serving the real economy, pushing high-quality financial development, and expanding high-level financial opening to the outside world. Most of these tasks continue the thread of China's recent financial regulatory reforms, but this marks the first time they have been unified under a long-term strategic framework centered on becoming a financial powerhouse.
On overarching goals, the plan lays out a two-step timeline: by 2030, establish the overall framework of a modern financial system with Chinese characteristics; by 2035, largely complete a modern, highly adaptive, competitive and inclusive financial system with Chinese characteristics, laying a solid foundation for the financial-powerhouse goal. That timetable mirrors the broader "two-step" strategic approach used across China's modernization planning, signaling that financial-system building has been folded into the country's overall medium- and long-term development strategy.
To support implementation, the People's Bank of China simultaneously issued its own "15th Five-Year Reform and Development Plan" alongside nine accompanying action plans covering specific policy tools and implementation paths. Analysts say this three-tier structure — an overarching plan, a central-bank-specific plan, and targeted action plans — suggests China's financial policymaking is becoming more systematic and executable, rather than remaining at the level of general principle.
The plan's release comes at a pivotal juncture as China wraps up its 14th Five-Year Plan and launches its 15th, forming part of the State Council Information Office's broader "launching the 15th Five-Year Plan" briefing series. Analysts say the language on financial oversight, risk prevention and serving the real economy continues recent policy themes, while the phrase "expanding high-level financial opening" is being read by markets as a signal that China will keep pushing yuan internationalization and capital-market opening — a trend worth watching for foreign investors, including those across Southeast Asia.
The concept of a "financial powerhouse" is not new — Chinese authorities have invoked it at previous major financial work conferences as a long-term vision for modernizing the financial system. What sets this 15th Five-Year Plan apart is that, for the first time, that vision has been converted into a formal five-year plan with a clear timetable, quantified pathways and supporting action plans, rather than remaining a matter of general principle or direction. Market analysts say this shift from "vision" to "plan" should make China's regulatory direction, pace of opening and risk-prevention measures more predictable over the next five years — a useful reference point for foreign institutional investors, including those in Southeast Asia, assessing the policy environment in China's markets.