Photo shows the Bund Shanghai. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)
BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- East China's Shanghai has made great headways towards building itself into a global financial technology (Fintech) center since it issued a guideline earlier this year to achieve such goal in the coming five years.
Shanghai has become the fourth most competitive financial center in the world, overtaking Singapore, according to the latest Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI) rankings revealed in March by Zen/Y, a London-based think tank.
Among all items, Shanghai scored relatively high in financial technology, contributing to the improvement of its ranking.
The guideline rolled out by the municipality proposed 25 measures, facilitating fintech R&D and encouraging innovative projects.
Year to date, 23 fintech application pilot projects have been put in place, among which 19 have been in operation after completing trial stage.
It's learned that these innovative projects could benefit both financial service users and financial institutions, by reducing transaction costs and promoting inclusive finance.
Benefiting its great efforts to promote the fintech development, a lot of leading fintech firms have settled there.
Three state-owned large commercial banks have set up fintech subsidies in Shanghai, which is also home to Alipay and China UnionPay.
Vanguard Group and Ant Group, the parent company of China's leading mobile-payment provider Alipay, also set up a joint venture (JV), Vanguard Investment Management in Shanghai. The JV is China's first licensed robo-advisor service provider.
Going forward, Shanghai is to cultivate about 20 leading fintech companies with international recognition, according to the guideline.
(Edited by Li Shimeng, Hu Pingchao with Xinhua Silk Road, lishimeng@xinhua.org, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
