Shanghai makes steady progress in international financial center construction: official

Shanghai's international financial center construction process is progressing soundly and features notable achievements, particularly through pioneering reforms in cross-border financial services, a central bank official said on Wednesday.

These endeavors have generated a set of replicable "Shanghai experiences" that can be applied elsewhere, Lu Lei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, told a press conference.

In 2024, Shanghai's cross-border RMB receipts and payments totaled 29.8 trillion yuan (about 4.1 trillion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 30 percent, accounting for 47 percent of the national total.

Lu also said that China will implement 18 key measures to further facilitate cross-border financial services in Shanghai.

These measures include enhancing cross-border settlement efficiency, optimizing the hedging of foreign exchange risks, and strengthening financing services, according to the latest action plan to further facilitate cross-border financial services in Shanghai by leveraging its role as an international financial center.

The action plan will enhance the facilitation of global asset management, and support eligible Qualified Domestic Limited Partner pilot enterprises in reasonably improving the efficiency of fund utilization under regulatory compliance, allowing them to invest in short-term cash management products in China, including low-risk monetary funds, cash management products and time deposits, as well as subscribing to certain overseas cash management products.

The plan will also encourage financial institutions to enhance their capacity to provide digital services and support them to improve services for enterprises to expand abroad by leveraging technologies such as blockchain.

Efforts will be made to enhance the functionality and global coverage of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System and encourage more banks to participate in the system, the action plan stated. ■