Shanghai vows better financial support for biz

Continued efforts will be made to further optimize Shanghai's financial ecology so the financial sector can better serve the real economy and facilitate high-quality economic growth, municipal financial regulators said during a news conference on Thursday.

As an international financial center, Shanghai should see its positioning upgraded by implementing major national strategies at a faster pace, said Zhou Xiaoquan, head of the Shanghai Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau.

To realize that goal, the financial sector should strengthen its ties with innovation, trade and shipping industries to form a greater driving force for high-quality economic growth, said Zhou.

Meanwhile, financial reform and opening-up can be deepened. The supply of financial derivatives will be enriched by introducing more commodities as well as financial futures and options. The interbank market will further open up while the bond connect mechanism is further strengthened. More international renminbi financial products should be launched and trading for RMB foreign exchange futures should be experimented with, he said.

RMB settlement for commodities, such as iron ore, oil and natural gas, should be expanded, said Liu Xingya, deputy director of the Shanghai Head Office for the People's Bank of China.

Cross-border RMB settlement should be promoted in countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative and among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Shanghai-based State-owned enterprises should play a leading role in the proliferation of such settlement, he said.

Meanwhile, substantial financial support will be provided to local companies to create a more amiable business environment. The PBOC Shanghai Head Office will continue to promote foreign exchange risk management services, including the innovative risk-sharing model for hedging foreign exchange fluctuations, said Liu.

Further fee reduction measures and fiscal subsidies can be expected from banks in Shanghai to help small and medium-sized enterprises better hedge risks when the RMB's two-way fluctuation is more noticeable, he added.

Meanwhile, Shanghai will render over 1 trillion yuan ($144.5 billion) in loans to local technology companies by 2025, said Cao Guangqun, deputy director for the Shanghai Office of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. Given the fact that some private companies are facing operational difficulties, local financial regulators will help to explore more financing channels and avoid blind withdrawal, cut-off or suppression of bank loans, added Cao.

As the municipal government has calculated, Shanghai is now home to 1,736 licensed financial institutions, 539 of which are foreign.