BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank announced on Wednesday that it will conduct a 400-billion-yuan (about 56.76 billion U.S. dollars), one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation on Thursday to maintain ample liquidity in the country's banking system.

The People's Bank of China said the MLF operation will be conducted by 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. ■