Golden Week brought gains in retail spending and cross-border payments. Shanghai’s consumption rose 9.9% year-on-year, while turnover at 78 monitored pedestrian streets and commercial districts nationwide increased 5.3% in the first three days. Alipay and Weixin also reported growth across inbound and Hong Kong–mainland payment channels, showing increased activity in the markets and services they cover. Policy support featured in household purchases and financial institutions’ funding. Trade-in programmes generated RMB 19.63 billion ($2.91 billion) in sales during the holiday’s first three days, and first-home mortgage subsidies took effect. China also auctioned RMB 150 billion ($22.3 billion) in special treasury bonds to finance capital injections into central financial institutions. Read more on the week’s key developments: 1. Alipay and Weixin report Golden Week cross-border payment growth Alipay reported nearly 40% year-on-year growth in offline tap-payment transaction counts during the Mid-Autumn and National Day holiday period. In National Day’s first four days, inbound spending through foreign cards linked to Alipay and overseas wallets connected through Alipay+ grew nearly 50% against the corresponding period in 2025. Weixin’s holiday data report showed that, over its Mid-Autumn and National Day reporting period, Weixin Pay transaction counts in Hong Kong rose nearly 30% year-on-year. Mainland transactions by WeChat Pay HK and Hong Kong foreign-card users increased more than 50%. The platforms serve cross-border spending through different connections. Alipay enables visitors to pay mainland merchants using linked foreign cards or their existing overseas wallets. Weixin extends its payment services into overseas Mini Programs, where transaction values for ride-hailing and shared transport each increased by more than 160% year-on-year. Together, these services extend payment providers’ customer relationships into travel, with merchant acceptance and access to everyday services supporting usage beyond their home markets. 2. First-home mortgage interest subsidies take effect The Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued mortgage interest subsidy rules on 29 September, effective from 1 October for a provisional one-year period. Eligible new first-home commercial loans cover new and resale properties no larger than 120 square metres and costing no more than RMB 1.5 million ($223,000). The annualised one-percentage-point subsidy applies to up to RMB 1 million ($148,000) of principal for up to five years, saving eligible buyers nearly RMB 50,000 ($7,400) at the upper limit. ICBC said it would deduct subsidies automatically from monthly repayments, without a separate application. The policy adds targeted fiscal support to monetary-policy-led housing measures. It arrives amid uneven housing demand: new residential sales area fell 13.0% in January–August, while resale transaction area rose 10.6%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, citing housing-ministry data for resales. Covering both markets allows support to reach resale purchases as well as developers' new-home sales. Unlike loan prime rate cuts, the subsidy targets qualifying purchases, with price and area caps focusing support on basic housing needs. 3. China auctions RMB 150 billion in capital-injection bonds China auctioned RMB 150 billion ($22.3 billion) of five-year special treasury bonds on 8 October. The issue represents half of this year’s RMB 300 billion ($44.5 billion) capital-replenishment programme. In its 7 September statement, the Ministry of Finance named ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Export-Import Bank of China and five state-owned insurance groups as recipients. It follows RMB 500 billion ($74.2 billion) of special-bond funding for four major commercial banks in 2025. The issue finances a programme spanning commercial banks, a policy bank and insurers, extending capital support across lending, export finance and insurance. It follows last year's four-bank recapitalisation but reaches a broader group of institutions. The Ministry of Finance describes the recipients as financially sound and frames the programme as strengthening resilience and service to the real economy. This positions the funding as reinforcement of financial capacity across several channels. 4. Golden Week spending grows in selected consumption measures Shanghai's online and offline consumption from 30 September to 6 October reached RMB 76.24 billion ($11.3 billion), up 9.9% year-on-year. Nationwide, footfall and turnover at 78 key pedestrian streets and commercial districts grew 3.4% and 5.3% respectively in the first three days. Consumer goods trade-in activities drove RMB 19.63 billion ($2.91 billion) in sales in the first three days, covering 3.483 million instances of subsidy use. Cars accounted for RMB 7.45 billion ($1.11 billion) of trade-in sales, appliances RMB 6.50 billion ($965 million) and digital and smart products RMB 4.90 billion ($727 million). Turnover at the monitored pedestrian streets and commercial districts grew faster than footfall, suggesting higher spending per visit alongside increased traffic. Trade-in sales show the scale of subsidy-supported purchases, although they do not measure how much spending was additional. Together with Shanghai's growth, the figures point to firmer activity in the reported retail channels, with fiscal incentives playing a visible role in purchases of durable goods. 5. Online financial marketing rules take effect The Measures for the Administration of Online Marketing of Financial Products took effect on 30 September. Issued by eight departments, including the People's Bank of China, National Financial Regulatory Administration, China Securities Regulatory Commission, State Administration for Market Regulation and Cyberspace Administration of China, the rules clarify boundaries for financial institutions and authorised platforms, prohibit misleading promotional language and restrict platform involvement in core sales stages. Non-bank payment institutions may not list loans or asset management products as payment-tool options or provide marketing services for those products. The rules also strengthen oversight of livestreaming and short-video marketing. Institutions must rectify non-compliant content. The rules draw a sharper boundary between acquiring customers through platforms and executing financial-product sales. Banks must assess and monitor partners, direct purchasing customers to their own platforms and retain responsibility for marketing content. Platforms cannot take over core sales functions such as contract signing or loan-limit assessment. The prohibition on payment institutions marketing loans and asset management products also goes beyond separating products at checkout, requiring institutions to review who conducts referrals and under which licence. 6. People’s Bank of China expands targeted funding and conducts liquidity operation On 29 September, the People's Bank of China cut the one-year pledged supplementary lending (PSL) rate from 1.75% to 1.5% and extended support to six infrastructure networks, including water, power and computing. At a 28 September briefing, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said central state-owned enterprises planned about RMB 2 trillion ($298.4 billion) in investment across the six networks in 2026. The People’s Bank of China added RMB 200 billion ($29.7 billion) to technology relending, taking the quota to RMB 1.4 trillion ($207.8 billion) and raising central-bank funding from 60% to 100% of eligible loans. Agricultural and small-business relending gained RMB 500 billion ($74.2 billion). On 8 October, it conducted a RMB 1.2 trillion ($178.1 billion), 89-day outright reverse repo, RMB 200 billion ($29.7 billion) more than corresponding maturities, according to Shanghai Securities News reporting of the central bank announcement. Raising technology relending support from 60% to 100% reduces banks' need to fund eligible loans from other sources. It changes the funding incentive while banks retain responsibility for assessing borrowers and bearing credit risk. The larger quota provides capacity for additional lending, rather than evidence of stronger credit demand. The reverse repo serves a broader purpose, supplying three-month liquidity to the banking system. 7. Foreign-currency loan reforms simplify accounts and repayments The State Administration of Foreign Exchange's (SAFE) domestic foreign-currency loan reforms took effect on 1 October, replacing five earlier notices, including the 2002 framework. Qualifying export-backed loans can enter borrowers' existing foreign-exchange settlement accounts and be converted into RMB. Borrowers can also purchase foreign currency through banks to repay loans with supporting documents, without the previous administrative approval. Export-backed loans must be matched to individual transactions and repaid primarily from export receipts. Banks retain responsibility for verifying transactions and reporting the business to SAFE. The practical benefit is better alignment between export finance and exporters' domestic cash needs. Eligible firms can convert foreign-currency borrowing to pay RMB expenses while awaiting overseas receipts. SAFE's consultation response explains that this conversion benefit is why it reserved the settlement-account concession for export-backed loans and declined to extend it to import-backed loans. The distinction makes the reform particularly relevant to export working capital, with repayment purchases providing a fallback when receipts are delayed and other foreign-currency funds are unavailable. 8. Hong Kong and Malaysia deepen stablecoin and settlement cooperation The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank Negara Malaysia announced on 6 October a policy-focused workstream on compliant cross-border stablecoin applications. They also agreed to enhance real-time gross settlement connectivity and explore a securities-depository link. The announcement follows the securities regulators’ 30 September introduction of a single-submission arrangement for simultaneous primary and secondary listings in Malaysia and Hong Kong, implementing their July agreement. The cooperation builds on existing links between Hong Kong's US-dollar settlement system and Malaysia's Real-time Electronic Transfer of Funds and Securities system (RENTAS), which support payment-versus-payment and delivery-versus-payment settlement. The single-submission listing arrangement already simplifies applications for issuers seeking both markets. By contrast, the depository connection and stablecoin workstream remain exploratory. Their significance is the prospect of linking fundraising with settlement infrastructure that already connects the two markets. 9. Hong Kong adopts retail fund reforms on derivatives and liquidity Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission announced on 7 October that amendments to its Code on Unit Trusts and Mutual Funds would take effect on 1 November 2026. The changes introduce a Value-at-Risk approach alongside the existing net derivatives exposure approach, streamline management-company and feeder-fund requirements, and strengthen liquidity and money-market fund safeguards. Existing authorised funds will generally receive a 12-month transition. The reforms follow a consultation launched in October 2025 and closed in January 2026. Value-at-Risk estimates potential portfolio losses over a specified period and confidence level, offering a different lens from measuring net derivatives exposure. The SFC's consultation identified fixed-income strategies in which derivatives can manage interest-rate and currency risks but still encounter exposure limits. The alternative approach can therefore accommodate those strategies through a market-risk measure. Stronger liquidity safeguards address a different problem, whether funds can meet redemptions without imposing undue costs on remaining investors. 10. NFRA’s serious-misconduct listing rules take effect The National Financial Regulatory Administration’s rules on a list of seriously untrustworthy parties took effect on 1 October. Published in July, they cover particularly severe violations and penalties, including licence revocation and lifetime banking or insurance industry bans. Listed parties may face greater scrutiny in licensing and more frequent inspections. Financial institutions may consult the list when making investment, financing, lending and insurance decisions. Listing normally lasts three years, with conditional early removal available after one year. The shared record gives severe misconduct consequences beyond the original penalty, making it relevant to later licensing, supervision and commercial due diligence. Banks and insurers may consult the list when assessing counterparties and business relationships; listing does not impose an automatic prohibition on lending or insurance. The three-year duration and conditional early removal also give institutions a defined framework for considering remediation alongside past misconduct. What to watch September consumer and producer price data on 14 October; third-quarter economic results on 19 October, including retail sales, investment and property-market figures; and the October loan prime rate announcement, scheduled for 20 October.
