China will study the use of artificial intelligence in financial regulation and financial services, according to a report presented at the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislative body. The report, submitted by the State Council, China's cabinet, states that the move is aimed at strengthening the country's financial monitoring systems and improving both access to and the effectiveness of financial services in the real economy. Alongside the study, the report sets out five priorities for the future development of the financial sector, among them the maintenance of a flexible monetary policy.

The report places the question of how artificial intelligence should be used and supervised in finance formally before China's legislature. Taken together, its two strands, the AI study and the five development priorities, outline how the Chinese government intends to steer the financial sector as new technologies reshape both the way financial institutions operate and the way they are regulated.

Report Tabled Before the NPC Standing Committee

The document was presented at the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the permanent body that exercises the powers of the full legislature between its annual sessions. It was prepared and submitted by the State Council, the chief administrative authority of the Chinese government, placing the subject within the framework of formal state planning and legislative oversight.

Reports of this kind are a standard channel through which the State Council informs the legislature of its work and its plans, and the inclusion of the AI-in-finance study in such a document underscores the formal weight the topic now carries in government planning.

According to the report, the study of artificial intelligence will cover both sides of the financial system: regulation, meaning the supervision and monitoring of financial activity, and services, meaning the delivery of financial products to businesses and households. The report links this work directly to two core aims:

  • strengthening financial monitoring systems
  • improving access to, and the effectiveness of, financial services in the real economy

Five Priorities for the Financial Sector

Beyond the AI study, the report sets out five priorities for the future development of the financial sector. The most prominent among the priorities disclosed so far is the maintenance of a flexible monetary policy, an approach that allows monetary authorities to adjust the supply of money and the cost of credit as economic conditions change, rather than holding to a fixed stance.

Flexibility in monetary policy gives policymakers room to respond to shifts in growth, prices and financial conditions. Its inclusion among the report's priorities indicates that the authorities intend to preserve that room for maneuver at a time when the financial sector is expected to absorb new technologies and new modes of oversight.

The details of the remaining priorities were not included in the information made available so far. The report is being examined at the current session of the Standing Committee, where the full document forms part of the deliberations.

Strengthening Monitoring, Serving the Real Economy

The two stated objectives of the AI study highlight a dual focus: tighter supervision of the financial system on one side, and more effective support for the real economy on the other.

Stronger Financial Monitoring

Financial monitoring refers to the systems through which regulators track transactions, supervise institutions and identify emerging risks. Artificial intelligence is increasingly used for this kind of work in financial systems around the world, particularly for detecting unusual patterns and processing large volumes of data at a scale that manual review cannot match. By commissioning a formal study, China's leadership is signaling that it wants a systematic assessment of how such capabilities could be applied to its own financial oversight.

Better Access for the Real Economy

The second objective concerns the real economy, meaning the parts of the economy that produce goods and deliver services, as distinct from purely financial activity. Improving access to finance and making financial services more effective for this side of the economy is a central policy concern, and the report frames artificial intelligence as a potential tool for achieving it, whether by widening the availability of services or by improving the quality and efficiency with which they are delivered.

A Systematic Approach to AI in Finance

The report's framing points to a cautious, evidence-gathering approach. Rather than announcing immediate rules or deployments, the State Council has chosen to begin with a study of how AI functions in both the regulatory and the service dimensions of finance, an approach that keeps options open while the technology and its implications are better understood.

The session of the NPC Standing Committee at which the report was presented is still under way. Details of the five priorities beyond the flexible monetary policy, and the practical next steps for the AI study, were not spelled out in the material made public so far. The original report is carried by RatoPati.