Shenzhen Moves Closer to Shanghai, Beijing as China’s Third-Largest Financial Center

     

Shenzhen Moves Closer to Shanghai, Beijing as China’s Third-Largest Financial Center

 

(Yicai Global) April 16 -- With its financial industry growing rapidly in recent years, Shenzhen, the southern Guangdong province, has firmly secured its position as China’s third-largest financial center, well ahead of second-tier cities that were just behind it, according to a report on financial talent in China.

The ministry of human resources and social security led the write-up of the report, with assistance from the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the country’s financial regulators. CFA Institute, the largest association of investment professionals, contributed to the report, which will be published in full in three months.

High levels of financial talent flows into and out of the financial sector is a characteristic of a mature financial center, the report said. Shanghai and Beijing have almost the same level in this respect, with a flow coefficient of around 1, meaning financial talent inflows are almost equal to talent outflows. Shenzhen is leaving second-tier cities such as Hangzhou, capital of the eastern Zhejiang province, Chengdu, capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan province, and Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, behind and moving closer to Shanghai and Beijing.

China's financial talent is mainly concentrated in four strategic areas -- the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region with Beijing at its center, the Yangtze River Delta region with Shanghai at its center, the Pearl River Delta region with Shenzhen at its core and the western region with Chengdu at its center, the report said.

Tech Hub Shenzhen’s Potential to Become Financial Center
Shenzhen already has a large number of financial professionals. The city has more than 400 CFA, which stands for chartered financial analyst, charter holders, accounting for 8 percent of some 5,000 in China, according to data from the CFA Institute’s Shenzhen office.

As of the end of last September, Shenzhen had 267 listed companies, ranking sixth in China by the number of listed firms, with a combined market cap of CNY5.17 trillion (USD823 billion), ranking third nationwide by the combined market cap of listed firms, according to figures from Shenzhen municipal financial service office.

Financial sector has become a pillar industry for Shenzhen’s economy, contributing to 14.9 percent of the city’s gross domestic product in the first three quarters of last year and 21.1 percent or CNY90.26 billion to its tax revenue, ranking second after manufacturing, according to the city’s financial service office.

Over the longer term, though it still lags behind Beijing and Shanghai in traditional financial sectors such as banking and insurance, Shenzhen has the potential to become a first-tier financial center, with the rise of emerging financial industries such as internet finance and fintech, the report added.