China, Britain to boost financial cooperation

LONDON — Officials from China and Britain stressed here on Tuesday the importance of enhancing bilateral financial cooperation.

At a conference on China-UK financial cooperation, Guo Kai, deputy general director of the International Department of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), said the cooperation of China-UK financial infrastructures will help provide better services for the two nations' financial institutions and lay a solid foundation for further expanding the financial cooperation between the two countries.

Guo said the British financial sector was "open..., sophisticated and visionary" and that it was "no coincidence that the Bank of England was the first major Western bank to sign a swap agreement with the PBOC."

Delegates of the conference also welcomed the opening of the representative office of the Shanghai Clearing House (SCH) in London's financial district.

Katharine Braddick, director general of financial services at the British Treasury, stressed that the government attached great importance to strengthening financial cooperation with China, in which boosting the presence of Chinese financial institutions in Britain plays a key role.

The SCH and the City of London Corporation (CLC) co-hosted the conference with the theme of "The Function of Financial Infrastructures in UK-China Financial Cooperation" at the Banking Hall in the city of London.

Xu Zhen, chairman of the SCH, said connectivity is the trend for the development of global economy and finance. It is the responsibility of all financial infrastructures to provide global financial market participants with efficient and secure network of post-trade services.

The SCH will take advantage of London's leading position in the global financial market to boost exchanges and connectivity among the financial infrastructures in China and Britain, said Xu.

He added that the SCH will make great efforts to reduce trading costs and promote allocation efficiency of global resources in an open market and maintain secure operations.

Close to 100 representatives from government agencies, international organizations, financial and commercial institutions attended the conference to discuss the impact of Brexit on financial infrastructures and post Brexit cross-border cooperation, global financial markets versus local and (or) regional regulations.

Sherry Madera, CLC's special adviser for Asia, told the conference that currency and clearing would play a key role in efficient fund flows as well as deep and liquid markets in the future.

Founded at the end of 2009, the SCH is defined as a qualified central counterparty (QCCP) by the PBOC and the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation.