At the 14th Beijing International Finance Expo, more than 150 Chinese and foreign financial institutions gathered to show the latest achievements in financial risk prevention and control, smart financial services and inclusive finance innovation. Spring light photo (people’s vision)
In the process of expanding financial openness, China has also actively initiated the establishment of international financial institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The picture shows the headquarters building of the AIIB in Beijing Financial Street. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Kaixiang photo
Financial opening will directly serve the economic and trade exchanges between China and overseas. The picture shows a busy scene in Chongqing Central Station of China Railway Lianji at Chongqing Railway Port on May 7 this year. Photo by Sun Kaifang (People’s Vision)
Not long ago, Guo Shuqing, President of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China, said that on the basis of in-depth study and evaluation, 12 new measures to expand the opening up of the banking and insurance industries will be introduced in the near future. In recent days, people from all walks of life have been paying more and more attention to the opening up of China’s financial industry. Insiders pointed out that China’s new round of measures to expand the opening of banking and insurance industry not only responded to the concerns of foreign financial institutions, but also met the needs of China’s own economic and financial development.
These opening measures are not only conducive to enriching market players, stimulating market vitality, but also improving the management level and competitiveness of the financial industry; It is also conducive to learning from international advanced concepts and experiences, expanding product and service innovation, and increasing effective financial supply, which embodies the meaning of China’s economic development towards high quality.
Foreign investment in China "has a bigger door and a wider road"
— — Expanding financial openness will help improve the business space and convenience of foreign-funded institutions in China.
In early May, a message released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange aroused widespread concern. This information shows that since the beginning of this year, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has approved a total of 13 qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) with a total investment quota of 4.74 billion US dollars, exceeding the total amount approved in 2018; A total of 12 RMB qualified foreign institutional investors (RQFII) were approved to invest a total of 24 billion yuan, exceeding half of the total amount approved in 2018. This means that the door for foreign capital to enter China is getting wider and wider.
"China’s determination to open wider to the outside world and a series of reform measures it is promoting have made China’s financial market more and more attractive to foreign investment. China’s stock market and bond market have been included in several global important indexes one after another, which also makes foreign capital have a strong allocation demand for China’s financial market. In the first quarter, overseas institutions bought a net of US$ 19.4 billion in Chinese stocks and US$ 9.5 billion in Chinese bonds, a substantial increase compared with the same period last year and the fourth quarter. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange will continue to actively support the expansion of the financial market to the outside world, meet the expanding investment needs of overseas investors in China’s financial market, and attract long-term global capital to enter China’s financial market. " The relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said.
Beyond the implementation level, 12 new initiatives issued by China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China, have attracted more attention. Specifically, these measures mainly include: canceling the upper limit of the shareholding ratio of a single Chinese bank and a single foreign bank to Chinese commercial banks at the same time; Cancel the total assets requirement of $10 billion for foreign banks to set up foreign-funded corporate banks in China and $20 billion for foreign banks to set up branches in China; Cancel the $1 billion total assets requirement for overseas financial institutions to invest in trust companies; Allow overseas financial institutions to invest in foreign-funded insurance companies in China; Allow foreign insurance group companies to invest in the establishment of insurance institutions; At the same time, relax the access policy for Chinese and foreign financial institutions to invest in the establishment of consumer finance companies; Cancel the approval of foreign banks to start RMB business, and allow foreign banks to operate RMB business when they start business.
Xiao Yuanqi, spokesperson of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China, said that the 12 new opening-up measures are aimed at further improving the foreign investment and business environment in the financial sector and stimulating the vitality of foreign investment in the development of China’s financial industry. "For example, if the relevant restrictions on the ratio of foreign shares are abolished, foreign investors can freely choose to operate in China by means of equity participation, joint venture or sole proprietorship, so as to further promote fair competition between Chinese and foreign investors. For another example, canceling the quantitative access requirements for institutions such as total assets and comprehensively evaluating the qualifications of applicants with more prudent conditions can attract more high-quality foreign-funded institutions with professional characteristics, which will help to further enrich financial market players and improve the supply of financial services. In addition, measures to expand the scope of foreign-funded business will further expand the space for foreign-funded institutions to operate in China and enhance their operational convenience. "
Ceng Gang, deputy director of the National Finance and Development Laboratory, believes that the new opening policy is the implementation and deepening of the general direction and policy principles of financial opening in the previous stage. "For example, at the same time, the upper limit of the shareholding ratio of foreign banks to Chinese commercial banks is cancelled, which reflects the consistency standard of foreign capital and Chinese capital; For another example, canceling the approval of foreign banks to start RMB business and allowing foreign banks to operate RMB business when they start business is also a manifestation of promoting more full competition in the market. " Ceng Gang said.
The "catfish effect" will expand.
— — The entry of "small but beautiful" and "small but refined" foreign capital will make China’s financial system more balanced.
The impact of the new round of financial opening policy is undoubtedly enormous. It is understood that at present, the banking and insurance industry in China has formed a multi-ownership structure of state-owned, private and foreign capital. Among them, private capital has accounted for 43%, 56%, 83% and 49% of the total share capital of joint-stock banks, city commercial banks, rural commercial banks and insurance companies respectively. Foreign banks and foreign insurance companies account for 1.64% and 6.36% of assets in China.
Guo Shuqing pointed out that financial management departments adhere to internal and external consistency, treat all domestic and foreign entities fairly and equally, and cooperate and compete under the same rules to form a win-win situation. He said that by further opening up and building a fair and consistent market environment, it will be more conducive to the full competition of banking and insurance institutions, optimize the shareholding structure, standardize shareholder behavior, and form a reasonable and diverse market system.
Take "allowing overseas financial institutions to invest in foreign-funded insurance companies in China" as an example. Before liberalization, the overseas shareholders of foreign-funded insurance companies should be insurance companies; After liberalization, allowing qualified non-insurance financial institutions to hold shares in foreign-funded insurance companies can enrich the types of shareholders and sources of funds of foreign-funded insurance companies. "At present, China insurance market has introduced six foreign insurance brokerage companies. Cancelling the requirements of relevant business years and total assets will help encourage and guide high-quality foreign-funded insurance brokerage companies with significant late-comer advantages to enter the China market, and help China deepen exchanges and cooperation with advanced international counterparts. " Xiao Yuanqi said.
According to Dong Ximiao, vice president of Chongyang Financial Research Institute of China Renmin University, the launch of a new round of opening-up measures in the financial industry will help to introduce small and medium-sized foreign financial institutions with characteristics and advantages, improve the unbalanced domestic financial institution system, promote more cooperation between domestic and foreign small and medium-sized financial institutions in terms of equity, business and products, and also help finance to better serve private small and micro enterprises.
"Previously, the foreign capital introduced by China was basically a top-level large-scale well-known foreign-funded institution. The cancellation of scale restrictions is conducive to the relatively small scale of foreign capital introduction, especially the better development, ‘ Small and beautiful ’ 、‘ Small but refined ’ Small and medium-sized foreign capital entered China. The introduction of these small and medium-sized foreign-funded institutions, on the one hand, is conducive to the enrichment of the main level of the financial industry in opening up to the outside world, and improves the unbalanced state of China’s financial system; On the other hand, it is conducive to the formation of ‘ Catfish effect ’ To promote full competition in the financial industry, so that private enterprises and small and micro enterprises in the real economy can get more support. " Dong Ximiao told reporters.
Peng Zhiwei, director of the Department of International Economics and Trade of Nankai University, pointed out in an interview with this reporter that a direct effect of China’s new round of measures to expand financial openness is to promote competition in the domestic financial industry and improve the efficiency of the financial market in allocating factors and resources. "Today, China’s economy is seeking higher quality development, so the financial industry should also carry out supply-side reform. At this time, further opening up the financial sector is obviously conducive to promoting reform and accelerating the upgrading of China’s financial industry. "
Quickly add whip to "enter the competition"
— — The new action of financial opening to the outside world has better responded to the real needs and concerns of foreign capital.
Swiss bank’s shareholding in UBS Securities increased to 51%, achieving absolute control; Jordan Arab Bank and Morocco Foreign Trade Bank successfully set up Shanghai branch; Allianz (China) Insurance was approved to build and became the first foreign insurance holding company in China; S&P was allowed to enter China’s credit rating market; American Express initiated the establishment of a joint venture company in China, and the application for preparing a bank card clearing institution has been examined and approved … … With the last round of financial opening, foreign financial institutions are more and more actively deploying the China market.
Nowadays, the new round of financial opening policy has obviously further increased China’s attractiveness to overseas financial institutions. Dbs group said that the implementation of the open policy has enabled foreign banks to have a more level playing field in China. After more reforms, DBS Bank is more willing to invest in China and expand its business in China. Morgan Stanley predicts that with the increase of China A-share market in MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the proportion of foreign investors holding China A-shares will increase from 2.6% to about 10% within 10 years, which is expected to bring hundreds of billions of dollars into China capital market every year.
As the largest foreign-funded property insurance company in China market, AXA Tianping will be 100% wholly owned by French AXA, and it is the first wholly foreign-funded company among the top 20 property insurance companies in China. In recent years, the continuous opening of China’s financial industry, especially the rapid growth of the insurance industry, has strengthened AXA Tianping’s confidence in expanding the layout of the China market.
Wei Zewei, Executive Chairman and CEO of AXA China, said that insurance regulators are promoting market liberalization and providing foreign investors with the same level of market access as domestic enterprises, and positive changes can be seen everywhere. "We have always been full of confidence in the China market and believe that the China market has great growth potential. Now we have become a leading foreign-funded life insurance and property insurance company in China. In the future, AXA Tianping will continue to devote itself to serving the China market and further deepen the insurance industry to provide more humanized services, so as to ‘ Quality ’ Win. "
"According to the data of the Ministry of Commerce, in the first quarter, 9,616 foreign-invested enterprises were newly established nationwide, and the actual use of foreign capital was 242.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%; In March, the actually used foreign capital increased by 8% year-on-year. Among them, high-tech manufacturing and high-tech service industries have increased substantially, and the investment in China by economies such as the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union has increased rapidly. A large number of foreign investments in China also show that the new situation of economic development requires China to provide more diversified, more open and more effective financial services. Expanding financial openness is obviously beneficial to the development of this open economy. It can be said that the new round of financial opening-up measures has better responded to the actual needs and concerns of foreign investment. " Peng Zhiwei said. (Our reporter Wang Junling.)
