China will soon roll out a policy on lowering downpayments on passenger vehicle loans, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) said on Monday.

The financial regulator has in recent years summoned multiple meetings attended by commercial banks and auto finance firms, among efforts to improve car credit oversight, the NFRA said in a faxed response to an earlier Reuters report.

The policy on lower car loan downpayments has proven "mature," and would be unveiled in the near future, according to the NFRA.

Current rules set a minimum downpayment of 15% for NEVs, 20% for internal combustion vehicles and 30% for used cars.

The imminent policy will reduce the cost of car purchases and help in propping up auto sales, the regulator said.

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Ziyi Tang and Bernard Orr; Editing by Toby Chopra)