Shanghai banks at forefront of reforms

Shanghai's banks have been at the very forefront of China’s reform and opening up, making innovative financial products and lending great support to the country’s economic development over the past four decades, said industry players at a recent event held by the Shanghai Banking Association.

Xu Bin, leader of the association and also president of the Shanghai branch of the Bank of Communications, told the gathering banks have made a  special contribution in the 40 years of opening up.

Take the Bank of Communications for example. As a century-old banking institution, the Shanghai-based lender was approved by the State Council — the Chinese cabinet  — in 1986 for a re-establishment and resumed operations in 1987 as China opened its doors wider to the outside world.

Since then, the bank has implemented a series of important reforms that are of pioneering significance for China's banking industry and even for the overall financial sector.

After the reorganization, the Bank of Communications became the country’s first national joint-stock commercial bank, which was able to break the shackles of the traditional planned economy and introduced a market-based competition mechanism and comprehensive management system.

During the first few years of the 21st century, the state-owned lender again took the lead in carrying out joint-stock reforms, completing a trilogy of financial restructuring, introducing strategic foreign investors and going public.

Zhang Guangping, a member of the preparatory group for the Shanghai bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said that the local watchdog had made constant efforts to deepen reform and opening-up in Shanghai’s banking industry by making innovative regulatory systems and mechanisms.

Besides, the banking regulator has unveiled a set of measures to guide and encourage banks to better serve the real economy.

“We are constantly exploring how to offer more effective financial services for private enterprises, especially the micro, small and medium-sized players,” said Zhang.

“We aim to lend more financial support for technological innovation in the future, and make a better integration of the banking sector’s transformation with the economic upgrading.

Also, the Shanghai bureau has been committed to boosting cooperation between domestic banks and their foreign counterparts and have made favorable policies to spur the business expansion of overseas lenders.

Data from the regulator showed that in 2018 alone, 102 new cooperation projects totaling nearly 400 billion yuan (US$57.93 billion) were launched involving both Chinese banks and foreign players.