PBOC unveils measures to boost fintech in Shanghai

Shanghai, on its way to becoming an international financial center as well as technology innovation center, has recently launched 40 measures to promote the development of financial technology.

The 40 measures issued by the Shanghai Head Office of the People’s Bank of China were formulated targeting eight major goals: to build a financial technology ecosystem with global influence, to deepen the application of fintech, to promote the research and development of emerging technologies, to continuously optimize financial services, to strengthen the cooperation on fintech in the Yangtze River Delta, to reinforce the risk management, to improve the regulatory effectiveness, and to enhance personnel training as well as cooperation and exchanges.

For instance, to create a financial technology ecosystem with international influence and gather the financial institutions and sci-tech innovation centers, Shanghai will encourage financial institutions to innovate and adapt to the trend of intelligent development in various fields, especially in fintech products and services such as the smart network, intelligent customer service, robo-advisor, and AI in financial risk management.

The city will also encourage fintech companies to set up research institutions including R&D centers, open innovation platforms and enterprise technology research institutes, for which authorities will help attract more capital to support the application and innovation of the cutting edge financial technologies.

Meanwhile, Shanghai will motivate banks and core supply chain enterprises to effectively use new technologies such as blockchain, and to establish service platforms for supply chain finance, which can provide efficient and convenient financing services for medium, small, and micro enterprises, thus addressing the problem of SMEs being unable to access loans or having to pay high interest to secure loans.

Various entities will be encouraged to set up industry funds and venture capital funds related to financial technology, so as to promote the healthy development of the multi-level capital market and increase investment in fintech.

Shanghai will push forward the optimization of the credit market system, and support the development of commercial credit reporting companies and credit rating agencies.

The city will intensify efforts to protect financial information, support the development of fintech companies in the Yangtze River Delta, promote the formulation and implementation of technical standards to ensure security controllability.