Shanghai aims to become a world-leading fintech center

In an attempt to help Shanghai better seize the opportunities in the upgrading of fintech, the municipal government released on Friday an action plan of 31 detailed measures to build itself into an international fintech center with higher quality.

The action plan aims to build Shanghai into a world-leading fintech center in three to five years.

Specifically, basic research and development and original innovation of the underlying technologies will be stressed in Shanghai by integrating artificial intelligence, blockchain, privacy computing and quantum computing, according to the action plan.

More fintech should be applied to the financial infrastructure in Shanghai, facilitating their digital transformation and upgrading. The infrastructure construction based on computing power, corpus and blockchain should be promoted to build a large financial corpus model database in Shanghai, said the action plan.

By making the best of the institutional advantages of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, including those of the Lin-gang Special Area, efforts will be made to introduce a negative list for cross-border data flow in the financial sector, it said.

There should be more innovative applications of e-CNY in financial markets, digitalization of shipping-based trade and cross-border payments. Support will be provided in promoting the agglomeration and development of fintech enterprises, encouraging the construction of innovative entities and creating high-quality space to nurture such clusters, said the plan.

According to Ge Ping, deputy director of the Shanghai financial work bureau, the action plan aims to give full play to fintech's multiplier effect in terms of nurturing more innovation in the financial sector. In this way, the modern financial industry can seek development in a safe and controlled manner, which will enhance Shanghai's competitiveness as a world financial center, he said during a press briefing on Friday.

He Weili, deputy head of the technology supervision department of Shanghai municipal financial regulatory bureau said on the Friday briefing that Shanghai plans to set up the first batch of 10 technology-focused bank branches this year to provide all-round financial services for technology companies, including fintech companies.