On January 7, the People's Bank of China issued PBC Announcement [2009] No. 1, removing the restriction that a bond has to be over 500 million yuan to be traded on the inter-bank bond market and paving the way for small-scale bond financing by small- and medium-sized enterprises.

On January 20, the People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the establishment of a bilateral currency swap arrangement. The agreement has a term of three years and provides 200 billion yuan/HK$227 billion.

On January 22, the People's Bank of China issued the Notice on Issues Concerning Development of Shanghai Inter-bank Offered Rates (PBC Document [2009] No. 24), to continuously improve the Shibor formation mechanism and promote the Shibor as a pricing benchmark and as a reference for the pricing of financial products.

On February 5, the People's Bank of China reported to the Finance and Economy Committee of the National People's Congress on implementation of monetary policy in 2008.

On February 8, the People's Bank of China and Bank Negara Malaysia announced the establishment of a currency swap arrangement, which has a term of three years and provides 80 billion yuan/40 billion ringgit.

On February 9, the People's Bank of China released the Notice on Improving Management of Central Bank Lending to the Agricultural Sector to Support Spring Plowing and to Step Up Credit Support to the Agricultural Sector, to improve policy for central bank lending to support agriculture and adding a 10 billion quota of central bank lending to support agriculture in the western and main grain-producing areas.

On February 23, the China Monetary Policy Report Quarter Four 2008 was released.

On February 26 and February 27, the People's Bank of China held its Money, Credit, and Financial Market Work Conference.

On March 3, the 15th regular meeting of the PBC Central Bank Bill Redemption Examination and Assessment Committee for the pilot rural credit cooperatives reform decided to redeem a quota of 3.6 billion yuan of special bills from rural credit cooperatives located in 98 counties (cities) of 14 province including Anhui province.

On March 11, the People's Bank of China released Announcement [2009] No. 4, approving consolidation by the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) of the Master Agreement for Trading of Financial Derivatives on the Inter-bank Market and the Master Agreement for RMB/Foreign Exchange Derivatives on the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market and the release of an updated Master Agreement for Trading Financial Derivatives on the Inter-bank Market, thus bringing all OTC trading of financial derivatives under one uniform master agreement.

On March 11, the People's Bank of China and the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus announced the establishment of a currency swap arrangement. The agreement has a term of three years and provides 20 billion yuan/8000 billion BYR.

On March 17, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange released the Notice on the Decision on Short-term External Debt Quotas of Financial Institutions in 2009 (SAFE Document [2009] No. 14). The SAFE increased the short-term debt quotas of financial institutions in 2009, emphasizing the increments would be used entirely for financing imports and exports of domestic enterprises to support the healthy and stable development of China's foreign trade.

On March 18, the People's Bank of China released Announcement [2009] No. 5, allowing fund management companies to open bond accounts on the inter-bank bond market under the category of a specific asset management portfolio and laying out provisions for their operation.