BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China announced on Thursday that it will conduct a 900-billion-yuan (about 128.54 billion U.S. dollars), one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation on Friday, aiming to maintain ample liquidity in the country's banking system.

The central bank said the MLF operation will be carried out via a fixed-quantity, interest-rate-bidding and multiple-price-bidding method.

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. ■