The People's Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the All China Women's Federation have issued implementation measures to direct more financial resources toward women's employment and entrepreneurship. The package combines expanded credit, wider capital market and supply chain financing access, education and training finance, and stronger insurance protection, while also requiring banks to improve how they assess and serve women-led businesses and female workers. The measures call for stronger lending support for women in entrepreneurship, flexible and home-based work, rural industries and female-led technology businesses, alongside financing for incubators and entrepreneurship parks. Local authorities are encouraged to optimize startup guarantee loan policies by increasing loan amounts, extending maturities and streamlining approvals, and may lower or remove counter-guarantee requirements for women entrepreneurs with good credit and specified honors. Eligible women-founded businesses and companies with a strong record of employing women may issue debt financing instruments and use supply chain bill services. The document also supports national student loans and commercial postgraduate student loans for women, financing for vocational training institutions and training-plus-credit models, broader health and social insurance protection including women-specific disease cover and flexible employment insurance, and lending for maternal and child health projects and related supply chains. To strengthen delivery, banks are told to use internet, data and artificial intelligence tools while preventing gender bias in algorithms, and to improve credit assessments for women-led entities by combining tax, business registration, social security and other data. The measures also encourage local loan risk compensation funds, wider use of fiscal interest subsidies and risk sharing, and greater coverage by government financing guarantee institutions. People's Bank of China branches are to use monetary and credit policy tools to steer more financing to women-led businesses, and the central bank said it will work with the other agencies to implement the measures and promote replicable practices.
Central Bank of the Republic of China2026-06-23
People's Bank of China National Financial Regulatory Administration and All China Women's Federation issue measures to strengthen financial support for women's employment
The People's Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the All China Women's Federation issued measures to expand financial support for women's employment and entrepreneurship. The package increases focus on startup and operating credit, bond and supply chain financing, education and training finance, and insurance protection. It also tells banks to improve data-based credit assessment for women-led businesses, prevent gender bias in algorithms and use guarantee and policy tools to expand lending.