Financial Street looks at success of opening-up

The spotlight at the recent 2023 Financial Street Forum annual conference in Beijing was firmly focused on the latest achievements driven by financial opening-up in the Chinese capital.

Established in 1992 as the first functional zone targeted at the industry, the Financial Street is a gathering place for national financial regulatory authorities, industry organizations and headquarters of large financial institutions and home to high-level financial talents. Its institutions cover a wide range of businesses in the financial field.

The 2023 Financial Street Development Report released at the scene showed that by the end of 2022, Financial Street had gathered more than 1,900 financial institutions and 175 enterprise headquarters, and was home to 16 Fortune Global 500 companies. Total assets of those institutions reached 138.7 trillion yuan ($19.4 trillion) — an increase of 8 percent over the previous year — and accounted for one-third of the nation's financial assets.

Beijing is implementing its commitment to open up its financial sector and enhance cross-border investment by boosting policies such as removing foreign ownership restrictions in the banking and insurance industries, and slashing access thresholds for foreign investors, said government officials at the event.

In September 2018, a policy report called "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Modern Financial Industry in Xicheng District" — also designated as "Ten Policies for Financial Services, version 1.0" — was unveiled by the city government. Over the following five years of policy implementation, a number of key financial institutions serving the national financial reform and development settled in the district and 269 new institutions were established, with total registered capital of 633.8 billion yuan.

Zeng Linfeng, deputy head of the Xicheng district government, said implementation of the "Ten Policies for Financial Services, version 1.0" helped facilitate landing a group of high-quality financial institutions and the emergence of long-term benefits and incentives. To serve construction of a financially strong country, the newly released "Ten Policies for Financial Services, version 2.0" focuses on the needs of financial institutions and provides comprehensive optimization of the previous version.

In terms of creating a more competitive business environment, the 2.0 version supports various types of financial institutions to develop in Xicheng district, including financial holding groups, licensed financial institutions and their primary branches. In serving the institutions throughout the entire business process, Xicheng district will strengthen the one-time settlement policy for newly established or relocated legal financial institutions, to a maximum of 50 million yuan.

With the commitment to encourage capital increase for legal financial institutions already established in the district, there will be a maximum subsidy of 20 million yuan. To support private equity funds, venture capital funds to serve the real economy and promote technological innovation, the subsidy is as high as 15 million yuan. And in order to reduce the operating costs of newly established or relocated financial institutions, a subsidy of 1,500 yuan per square meter will be provided for the purchase of office space. The 2.0-version policy also supports high-quality development of bank wealth management, insurance asset management, securities asset management, trusts, futures and financial asset investment companies while striving to build an asset management highland.

Additional rewards will be given to key asset management institutions included in the annual comprehensive service award, and support will be provided for foreign financial institutions to establish wholly-owned or joint venture asset management subsidiaries or offices in Xicheng district.

The policy also encourages cooperation between financial institutions in the district and internationally renowned asset management institutions, aiming to take the lead in cross-border investment and financing, renminbi internationalization and foreign exchange management reform. Additionally, it provides support and incentives for enterprise listing and talent introduction. Comprehensive services will be expanded to include education and training, medical insurance, health management, talent apartments, transportation services, cultural services, conference services and enterprise consulting.

Meanwhile, Beijing Stock Exchange — one of the three mainland listing venues dedicated to supporting technological and innovative companies — recently issued 19 new measures for deepening reforms. The initiative calls for more investment in the Beijing Stock Exchange, core capabilities for research, innovative efforts in products, customer service upgrades and continuous optimization of information technology and compliance control systems.

During the signing ceremony, Beijing Stock Exchange signed a usage agreement with Hang Seng Indexes Company to further enrich index products and help optimize product layout. According to the agreement, Hang Seng Indexes can use market information from the Beijing Stock Exchange to compile indexes.