During the press conference of the CIFTIS for Beijing's fintech achievements, which was held on the afternoon of September 8, the Global Fintech Hub Report 2020 (the "Report") was released. According to the Report, Beijing, San Francisco (Silicon Valley), New York, Shanghai, London, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou secured the top seven positions as before, with Shenzhen and Hangzhou tying for sixth.
The Report was jointly released by the Beijing Frontier Institute of Regulation and Supervision Technology (FIRST), the Sinai Lab from the Academy of Internet Finance (AIF), Zhejiang University, the Zhejiang University International Business School (ZIBS), the IDR, and the Zhejiang Association of Internet Finance (ZAIF).
The Report praises Beijing as an all-round and well-deserving top global fintech hub which has topped the ranking for two consecutive years. With the balanced development of its fintech industry, consumer experience, and fintech ecosystem, which all rank among the world's top 5, Beijing enjoys unique advantages and opportunities in fintech development:
The "Four Centers" strategy (building Beijing into China's political, cultural, international exchange, and scientific and technological innovation center) clarifies Beijing's vital city positioning, and unparalleled global vision and competitive edge. Moreover, Beijing is being built into a national financial management center, which gives Beijing a strong foundation in terms of industrial base, resources, opening up to the world, and regional coordination.
The concentration of high-quality fintech companies in Beijing creates an excellent environment. Up to now, Beijing has assembled 13 listed fintech enterprises as well as 60 highly capitalized unlisted ones, and the numbers of these two kinds of fintech companies are respectively ranked number 1 and 2 in the global rankings. Meanwhile, Beijing obtains eye-catching scores in core ecosystem indicators such as economic foundation, finance industry foundation, technology industry foundation and research capacity. In particular, prestigious universities in Beijing have obtained high general capability scores, 8 of which are in China's world-class universities project and where 26 are in the first-class disciplines project. In addition, the "cooperation among governments, enterprises, academia and research institutes for innovation and investment" has further improved Beijing's ability to transform research results into products.
The People's Bank of China, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, and many other financial regulators are headquartered in Beijing. Because of this, Beijing enjoys strong policy support and high-level regulatory synergy. China's first fintech development plan was issued in Beijing, the first national Fintech Demonstration Zone was built here, and special think tanks like the Beijing Fintech Institute and the FIRST have been founded in Beijing as well. More importantly, Beijing, China's first pilot city for the regulation on fintech innovation, has formed a regulatory system combining both top-down and bottom-up approaches. As Beijing's trial of supervision on fintech innovation carries on, its fintech innovation regulation is being enhanced.
(Note: Content source is from Beijing Daily.)