context: Since February 2026, Beijing has widened several outbound-side cross-border finance channels, including RMB cross-border interbank financing and a higher macro-prudential coefficient for firms' overseas lending. This latest move adds a bank-side channel to that sequence. The point is not broad capital-account opening, but a more selective expansion of regulated outbound funding capacity to support overseas expansion while keeping flows inside a macro-prudential framework. Tripling the overseas lending cap for foreign banks while leaving domestic banks untouched signals that Beijing is using institutions with established global networks as the preferred conduit for this phase of overseas expansion.
PBoC (People's Bank of China) and SAFE (State Administration of Foreign Exchange) raised overseas lending leverage ratios for foreign-invested banks and Export–Import Bank of China on 15 April, tripling foreign banks' offshore credit capacity in one move.
The notice adjusts the lending cap
- lending cap = tier 1 net capital × leverage ratio × macro-prudential parametre (formula unchanged)
- foreign-invested banks (wholly foreign-owned, joint ventures and foreign bank branches in PRC): leverage ratio raised from 0.5 to 1.5
- Export–Import Bank of China: leverage ratio raised from 3 to 3.5
- minimum lending floor raised from C¥2 bn to C¥10 bn for institutions with smaller capital bases
- indirect lending: one-year-plus loans via overseas correspondent banks no longer subject to the 2022 compliance requirement, cutting costs for cross-border syndications
The six state-owned banks, joint-stock banks and domestic commercial banks are unaffected.
The gap between the two leverage adjustments is telling. Foreign banks' threefold increase against Export–Import Bank's 0.5-point rise reflects where global network value is highest and where caps were most binding, argues Pang Ming 庞溟 National Institute for Finance and Development distinguished senior researcher. Orderly capital outflows also absorb upward RMB pressure, a by-product Beijing will not overlook, adds Pang.
The indirect lending change may prove equally consequential, removing cross-jurisdictional friction that has limited complex multi-lender structures, says Zeng Gang 曾刚 Shanghai Institute for Finance and Development director.