The People's Bank of China initiated an 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) reverse repurchase to prevent a severe credit crunch in the banking industry on Thursday.

The PBOC put 155 billion yuan into the open market during the last week in September. The bid is going to last for 14 days.

Statistics show this week, from Sept 21 to 27, the maturing central bank bills amounted to 5 billion yuan while maturing reverse repurchases stood at 18 billion yuan, putting the net credit injection at 13 billion yuan.