Xiangmihu Financial Technology Index analyzes Shenzhen Stock Exchange-listed companies

Xiangmihu Financial Technology Index, the first index designed to reflect the performance of the financial technology industry in China, made its debut on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on June 9.

The index was jointly developed by Invest Shenzhen Futian, a government service agency to promote Futian's investment environment, and Shenzhen Securities Information Co. It aims to reflect the overall performance of fintech companies listed on the Shenzhen exchange, and to provide more performance benchmarks and investment opportunities to the market. The index takes May 26, 2017, as its base day and has a base level of 3,000.

Supportive measures for the development of the fintech industry were also announced on June 9. An expert advisory committee formed by 30 domestic and international experts was established to accelerate the construction of a healthy fintech ecosystem and provide a driving force for the development of a fintech center.

"Futian will roll out a series of measures to support the development of the financial technology industry," said He Jie, deputy head of Futian district.

He said supportive measures will include promoting the development of an industrial cluster, establishing a financial technology support fund and developing a young talent training program.

He explained that the reason for using Xiangmihu Financial Technology Index, instead of Shenzhen or Futian, was because they didn't want to restrict the development of an index to an administration or territory.

He added that the special policies issued in March this year by the Futian government to accelerate the rapid, healthy and innovative development of the fintech industry were not limited to enterprises and projects in Futian, but were targeted at all enterprises and industrial chain elements in the industry.

The Financial Technology Index defines the industry as covering the fields of distribution technologies, including blockchain and cloud computing; and internet technology, including electronic and network payment; financial security; and internet finance.

According to statistics, there are 71 fintech-related companies that are listed in the A-share market. Among which, 59 are listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with a total market value of more than 660 billion yuan ($98.97 billion).

Figures provided by Futian's bureau of statistics show that the financial industry was the driving force behind the district's strong economic growth, growing 17 percent in the first quarter of 2017 from a year earlier and contributing the lion's share - 34.03 billion yuan, accounting for 38.5 percent - of Futian's total economy.

Official figures show that about 67 percent of licensed financial institutions in Shenzhen have their headquarters located in Futian. Financial institutions ranging from banks, brokerages and insurance companies, such as the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Ping An Insurance and China Merchants Bank, are all based in Futian.

Shenzhen Daily provided the story.

(HK Edition 08/18/2017 page21)