China’s central bank is set to roll out a new personal credit repair policy aimed at helping individuals who defaulted on small debts during the Covid-19 pandemic fully restore their credit standing, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng announced.

The policy, expected to take effect early next year, will apply to people who experienced minor loan defaults after the pandemic outbreak but have since repaid their debts. Pan made the announcement at the Annual Conference of the Financial Street Forum 2025, which concluded on Thursday.

According to Pan, each individual will be eligible to apply for credit repair only once. The initiative is designed to provide limited relief to those whose financial records were temporarily affected during an extraordinary period, while maintaining the overall integrity of the nation’s credit system.

Pan emphasized that the new mechanism will not erase negative credit records but will prevent the display of past defaults in public credit reports. Financial institutions will retain access to the underlying data for internal reference and risk management purposes. The approach, he said, balances the need for accountability with compassion toward individuals whose creditworthiness was impaired by pandemic-related disruptions.