Aggregate social financing (ASF) measures all loans made to the real economy. Introduced in 2011 by PBoC, it includes RMB and foreign currency loans, corporate bonds, stocks of non-financial firms, insurance benefits, as well as off-balance sheet activities like trust loans, entrusted loans and bankers’ acceptances. The measure was created to help regulators keep track of credit creation as direct financing grew, and stock and bond markets replaced banks as sources of credit. PBoC’s monthly TSF stock and flow values are, despite being an imperfect measure, increasingly a barometer for the size of the shadow banking sector. A TSF target was first set in the 2016 Government Work Report, reflecting its new prominence.