Lujiazui Forum to discuss new financial policies

Lujiazui Forum, the highly anticipated financial industry event jointly held by China's top financial regulators and Shanghai's municipal government, will hold its 16th edition on June 18.

This year's forum has set its theme on "financial opening-up and cooperation for high-quality development in a changing global economy". During the forum, central financial regulators are expected to release a set of major financial policies.

Officials from the country's top financial regulators such as the National Financial Regulatory Administration and China Securities Regulatory Commission will be in attendance, including Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China, and Zhu Hexin, PBOC's deputy governor and administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, who will both give keynote speeches.

More than 70 industry leaders from over 10 countries and regions are also expected to deliver speeches during the forum, including from the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the Hungarian National Bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Li Kexin, deputy director of the PBOC's general office, said during a media conference in late May that the country's central bank is accelerating efforts to enrich the policy reserves to help Shanghai consolidate its role as an international financial center.

Zhou Xiaoquan, executive deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Finance, stated that Shanghai will assist central financial regulators' efforts to steadily advance China's high-level financial opening-up.

Focusing on institutional opening-up, Shanghai will experiment with new financial trading and supervision mechanisms that align with international systems in Pudong, including the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, according to Zhou.

For years, Lujiazui Forum has served as an indicator reflecting the trajectory of China's financial development. Reform and opening-up are the buzzwords of the forum, appearing in the themes for nearly half of the previous editions.

Officials, industry mavens and scholars have shared their insights and exchanged their thoughts at the forum regarding the most relevant topics including weathering the global financial crisis, helping the financial sector better serve the real economy, liquidity stalemate in the Chinese banking industry, preventing systemic risks, among others.

Fruitful results have been borne from the forum, with China forging closer financial ties with the international market. The stock connect program between Shanghai and London announced in 2016 is one such example. The official launch of the STAR Market at the Shanghai Stock Exchange during the 2019 Lujiazui Forum has largely facilitated the development of emerging industries and helped to complete the construction of a multi-level capital market in China.

Meanwhile, the forum has set a clear goal for Shanghai: growing into an international financial center that reflects China's economic strength and the international status of the renminbi, which has been advancing steadily.

Shanghai has benefited from hosting the forum. The city is now home to 1,782 licensed financial institutions, among which one third are foreign invested. A total of six futures products are directly accessible to international investors, such as yuan-denominated crude oil, low-sulfur fuel oil and copper. Shanghai also accounted for 47 percent of all the cross-border renminbi settlement made in 2024.

Lujiazui, the area located in eastern Shanghai's Pudong New Area, has been a magnet to various financial institutions. More than 8,000 financial companies are now operating in the area. A total of 12 national-level financial market venues and infrastructures are built here.

In light of the rising complexities and uncertainties in the global market, this year's forum will touch upon the topics of strengthening the coordination of global monetary policies, securing the stable development of the financial market, better supporting new quality productive forces with financial strengths, applying artificial intelligence to empower financial reform and innovation, among others.

Milestones of Lujiazui Forum:

2008: First edition of the Lujiazui Forum

2016: Official launch of the Shanghai Insurance Exchange

announced to prepare for the Shanghai-London stock connect program

2017: Announced the forthcoming launch of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment Systems (CIPS) in Shanghai

2018: Announced the gradual relaxation of limits on shareholding ratio and business licenses for foreign financial institutions

2019: Official launch of the technology-focused STAR Market at the Shanghai Stock Exchange

2023: Official launch of the Shanghai International Reinsurance Exchange

Shanghai's annual financial trading value (2015-2024)

Year Value (trillion yuan)

2015 1463

2016 1364.7

2017 1430

2018 1645.78

2019 1934.31

2020 2274

2021 2511

2022 2932.98

2023 3373.6

2024 3650.3