Under the guidance of China Securities Regulatory Commission (“CSRC”) and the support of the Guangdong and Shenzhen governments, the 60th World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) General Assembly & Annual Meeting was opened in Shenzhen today. It’s the second time that the WFE Annual Meeting is held in China after 14 years. This year’s WFE Annual Meeting is the first high-standard global event in the capital market field since the outbreak of Covid-19. It is of great significance to deepening communication and cooperation among capital markets, giving play to the functions and roles of exchanges around the world, and strengthening the recovery resilience and development vitality of the world economy.

Themed by “Resilience & Recovery: The Role of Market Infrastructure in a Pandemic World”, the meeting will last four days and be held in the combined form of on-the-spot and video conferencing. Officials of 91 securities and futures exchanges and clearing houses and 37 financial regulators from around the world will attend the meeting.

At the Opening Ceremony, Chairman of the WFE Dr. Urs Rüegsegger, CEO of the WFE Nandini Sukumar, and Mayor of Shenzhen Qin Weizhong addressed the ceremony via video, CSRC Chairman Yi Huiman delivered a keynote speech via video, SZSE Chairman Wang Jianjun gave the welcome speech, and Chairman of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Huang Hongyuan attended the meeting on the spot. The Opening Ceremony strictly implemented pandemic prevention and control requirements. Nearly 80 people including the heads of Chinese exchanges, regulators, clearing houses and market institutions and the representatives of foreign exchanges in China were at the scene of the meeting, while the key personnel of other foreign regulators, exchanges, clearing houses and market institutions, totaling 250 people, attended the meeting via video conferencing.

Dr. Urs Rüegsegger congratulated the WFE Annual Meeting on successful holding despite the impacts of the pandemic and pointed out that the great uncertainties about the human society and the world economy and unstable expectations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are affecting the stability of financial markets around the world. In the face of the challenges of the pandemic, capital markets maintained continuous operation, opening up and cooperation even during the worst period of the crisis, and the world economic and financial order is gradually recovering. The WFE is the most important industry organization of international capital markets and plays a critical role in international financial governance. Members of the WFE should adhere to win-win cooperation, deepen the functions of market infrastructure, and explore the application of the latest financial technologies. Members should also leverage the advantages of exchanges in supporting economic recovery and development, work together to cope with the risks and challenges in financial markets, maintain market order and stability, and promote the sustainable development of capital markets and the world economy.

Yi Huiman said that serving the real economy and protecting investors’ legitimate rights and interests are the roots and souls of the development of capital markets and should be the primary goals of exchanges and regulators around the world. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, capital markets around the world have shown strong resilience, quickly restoring normal functions. They have played an important role in the stable recovery of the world economy. Looking forward, opening up and cooperation will be the inevitable trend in the integrated development of capital markets around the world. CSRC is developing relevant measures aimed to further expand the institutional two-way opening up of capital markets. Local exchanges, financial institutions and regulators across China should act professionally and further strengthen communication and cooperation as well as mutual learning and mutual trust. In the meantime, with the rapid development of new-generation information technology and financial innovation, exchanges are faced with unprecedented challenges in traditional management and operation models. Therefore, they need to intensify research on strategic fundamental issues concerning sustainable development such as digitization and intellectualization of regulation, changes in investor behaviors brought about by the development of social platforms, innovation in issuance and listing models, regulation of new trading manners, etc. to improve the coping capability in all respects.

Qin Weizhong said that Shenzhen is one of the cradles of the Chinese capital market. The capital market has assisted Shenzhen in cultivating a fleet of leading players with the capability to compete in the world and becoming an international metropolis with global influence. The Shenzhen government will actively promote the reform, opening up and innovation-oriented development of the financial industry, and fully support SZSE’s goal of becoming a world-class exchange. It will strive to build Shenzhen into a global innovation capital formation center, financial innovation center and fintech center, provide strong support to realize high-quality economic and social development, and accelerate the development of the Pilot Demonstration Area of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.

Wang Jianjun said that the capital market is an important part of the global economic and financial system. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, SZSE has, according to CSRC’s requirements, provided flexible and warm regulation and services, firmly implemented the reform of the ChiNext Board and the pilot project of the registration-based IPO system, and continuously promoted high-standard opening up. In the meantime, SZSE has actively developed the green financial service system, put forth effort to establish a safe and efficient technical system, and further supported the innovative, productive and creative enterprises, and conventional industries integrated with new technology, new industry, new business form, and new model, to serve the development of the real economy. SZSE is striving toward a “quality innovation capital center and world-class exchange” and will deepen cooperation with international peers to make capital markets around the world more open, more inclusive and more efficient and facilitate the recovery and long-term, stable and healthy development of the world economy.

Founded in 1961, the WFE is the highest-level non-profit, professional international organization in the global exchange industry. It currently has 67 members and 24 affiliates, which basically cover all major stock, bond and derivatives markets in the world. SZSE, SSE, Dalian Commodity Exchange, Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, Shanghai Futures Exchange, China Financial Futures Exchange and China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation Limited are all members of the WFE. In recent years, the Chinese capital market has become increasingly influential in the governance of the WFE.

This year’s WFE meeting will organize several online roundtable discussions from September 6 to 9. Centering on hot topics such as recovery of the world economy in the post-pandemic era, development trends of capital markets, services for small and medium-sized enterprises and market risk management, the meeting will have in-depth discussions on subjects like functions and role of market infrastructure, promoting technological innovation of exchanges, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in sustaining development, balancing innovation and investor protection, improving private and open market governance, etc. and issue the WFE research report.