BEIJING, May 22 -- China's central bank on Thursday announced that it will conduct a 500-billion-yuan (about 69.54 billion U.S. dollars), one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation on Friday to maintain ample liquidity in the country's banking system.

The People's Bank of China said the MLF operation will be conducted using a fixed-quantity, interest-rate-bidding and multiple-price-bidding method.

China has pledged to implement a moderately loose monetary policy this year. Since the beginning of the year, its central bank has deployed a range of tools to inject liquidity into the country's banking system and stabilize interest rates.

The MLF 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.