Financial court to deal with all sci-tech board cases

Local courts plan to have the Shanghai Financial Court deal with civil, commercial and administrative cases related to the new science and technology innovation board, after getting approval from the Supreme People's Court, the local high people's court said on Monday.

The high court released some legal guidelines on judicial efforts local courts should make to ensure the operation of the science and technology innovation board, which was launched at the Shanghai Stock Exchange last Thursday.

The guidelines show that local courts should punish crimes related to the new board and solve disputes over civil compensation caused by security frauds like false statements, insider trading and securities manipulation. The courts should also do research ahead of some important and complicated legal problems brought on by issues like the obligation of information disclosure and companies' differential arrangements for voting rights under the new registration system.

Local courts should also try to use demonstration cases in solving securities disputes with mass stakeholders. The judges can refer to the demonstration cases when dealing with similar disputes, which can simplify the litigation procedure.

According to the high court, local courts accepted 170,000 financial cases of the first instance last year with the total amount involved reaching in excess of 140 billion yuan (US$20 billion). More than 2,200 disputes were related to liability for false statements on securities, an increase of 86 percent from 2017.

Since March 18 the Shanghai Stock Exchange has accepted applications from more than 120 enterprises to list on the Nasdaq-like new board.