Data was released by the central bank for the first time on Wednesday on its newly created standing lending facility.

The new tool, introduced at the start of the year, is similar to the US Federal Reserve's discount window facility and has a tenor of one to three months.

The liquidity management tool reached 416 billion yuan ($68.2 billion) in June, when a money crunch hit the country's financial system. In the crunch overnight interbank rates soared to 30 percent shortly before the People's Bank of China shot liquidity into selected banks. The rate stood at 3.92 percent on Wednesday.

The outstanding total of the facility decreased over the last quarter, to 386 billion yuan at the end of September. The central bank said this partly reflected increased liquidity in the banking system as a result of inflows of foreign exchange.