The Shanghai Municipal Government recently launched an action plan to establish the city as a world-leading fintech hub within the next three to five years.

The blueprint, launched at a news conference on Sept 13, emphasizes leveraging technology to drive financial innovation and strengthen Shanghai's position as an international financial center.

Building on previous initiatives released in 2020 and 2021 for the construction of Shanghai as a fintech center, the new action plan outlines 31 specific measures and policies across seven key areas:

1. Building a robust fintech innovation support system

- Establishing a dedicated working mechanism for fintech development under the leadership of the existing Shanghai International Financial Center Development Leading Group.

- Exploring the formation of a specialized expert advisory committee to provide high-level guidance and support for fintech initiatives.

- Supporting fundamental research in fintech and fostering an ecosystem that nurtures startups through incubation and acceleration programs.

2. Cultivating innovative fintech demonstration scenarios

- Accelerating the integration of finance and technology, capitalizing on Shanghai's diverse industries and rich applications scenarios.

- Promoting the innovative use of the digital yuan in areas like financial markets, digitalized shipping and trade, as well as in cross-border payments.

- Exploring new value models and applications for the digital yuan.

3. Enhancing fintech regulation and safeguarding financial security

- Exploring a more flexible "regulatory sandbox" mechanism within Shanghai to provide regulatory guidance and policy support for fintech innovation within a controlled environment.

- Ensuring all financial activities are conducted in compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

- Strengthening fintech ethics and consumer protection measures.

4. Optimizing fintech spatial layout and carrier construction

- Encouraging the development of fintech clusters in key districts like the Pudong New Area, Huangpu district and in the Lin-gang Special Area.

- Implementing supportive policies to attract fintech companies, encourage innovation and develop high-quality infrastructure and spaces for the sector.

5. Strengthening fintech infrastructure development

- Supporting the adoption of fintech and digital transformation within existing financial infrastructure in Shanghai.

- Promoting the development of foundational infrastructure – including computing power, corpus  and blockchain, specifically for the financial sector. This includes creating a Shanghai large-scale financial corpus database.

- Promoting the construction of a medical insurance big data innovation laboratory to facilitate data sharing and integration between medical insurance and commercial insurance.

- Leveraging the institutional innovation and pilot advantages of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and Lin-gang Special Area to formulate a negative list for cross-border data flows in finance.

6. Strengthening financial support for fintech enterprises

- Exploring the establishment of a dedicated Shanghai fintech industry fund to guide and leverage social capital for increased investment in the fintech sector.

- Supporting fintech companies in securing financing through channels like listings, bond issuance and mergers and acquisitions to encourage industry consolidation and resource integration.

- Providing targeted and efficient technology credit services to fintech companies and increasing insurance support for fintech innovation.

7. Optimizing fintech development environment

- Developing Shanghai into a magnet for top fintech talent by establishing a fintech talent training and practice base.

- Promoting the development of influential fintech industry organizations like the Shanghai fintech industry alliance and the intelligent investment research technology alliance.

- Encouraging high-quality fintech innovation projects and exploring the launch of a dedicated "Shanghai Fintech Innovation Program".

- Deepening international exchanges and cooperation in fintech through high-level events.

- Formulating supportive fintech policies and refining incentive mechanisms.Actively promoting and publicizing fintech-related policy documents and successful case studies.

Source: "shanghaifabu" WeChat account