BEIJING — China's central bank pumped cash into the financial system through open market operations to maintain liquidity in the market on March 16.

A total of 100 billion yuan (about $14.28 billion) was injected into the market via the medium-term lending facility (MLF), according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank.

The funds will mature in one year at an interest rate of 3.15 percent.

The MLF tool was introduced in 2014 to help commercial and policy banks maintain liquidity by allowing them to borrow from the central bank using securities as collateral.

The central bank skipped reverse repo on March 16.

The PBOC on March 13 announced it would implement targeted reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cuts for eligible banks from March 16.

The move will release 550 billion yuan of long-term funds, it said.

The RRR cuts target inclusive finance, and banks that meet certain criteria can enjoy 50 to 100 basis points of RRR cuts.

In addition, eligible joint-stock commercial banks will be given an additional targeted RRR cut of 100 basis points to support lending in inclusive finance.