BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank on Friday initiated the second phase of a targeted reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cut for some city commercial banks and conducted the medium-term lending facility to inject liquidity into the market.

Friday's reduction in the cash that lenders must hold as reserves unleashed around 40 billion yuan (about 5.7 billion U.S. dollars) of long-term capital into the market, the People's Bank of China said on its website.

Meanwhile, a total of 200 billion yuan was pumped into the market via one-year medium-term lending facility at the interest rate of 3.25 percent, the central bank said.

The moves aimed to maintain market liquidity at a reasonably ample level to offset peaks of tax payment and other factors, the central bank said.

To boost financing for small and private firms, the central bank said in September it would cut the RRR by a total of 100 basis points for any city commercial bank that operates only in the provincial-level region where it is based.

The targeted cuts have been implemented in two phases, with the first phase of a 50-basis-point reduction going into effect on Oct. 15.

The two phases of cuts were expected to release capital totaling 100 billion yuan, the central bank said.