[1]: 6 The bank was formally created on 21 December 1940 and started operations on 6 January 1941 in Nanjing.
[3]: 512 It issued "puppet currency" known in English as the Reserve Bank note [zh] (chubei-quan).
Confidence in the bank started to collapse in 1942, together with the prospects for Japanese victory in the Pacific War, leading to hyperinflation.
[1]: 8 In August 1945, the Wang Jingwei regime fell and the Central Reserve Bank ceased to function.
On 30 September 1945, the branch of the Central Reserve Bank in Osaka was closed by the American occupation authorities.