Editor's note: As a new driving force for China's economic growth and a new fulcrum for connecting with the global economy, the business environment in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been continuously optimized, attracting more and more Fortune 500 companies to settle down and develop. From now on, the Southern Network and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Portal Network have launched a series of interview reports on "The World's Top 500 Foreign Enterprises Look at the Greater Bay Area", so please pay attention to it.
In October last year, the pilot business of "Cross-border Wealth Management Connect" in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was officially launched. As a new milestone in cross-border financial interconnection, the "Cross-border Wealth Management Connect" implements the principle of risk control and step-by-step in the design of the mechanism, so that residents of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can more easily invest in the wealth management products of financial institutions.
It is reported that Standard Chartered Bank, as one of the first banks to participate in the pilot of the "cross-border wealth management connect" business, the "Southbound Connect" investment channel it serves is particularly popular with residents in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other places. As a foreign-funded enterprise, Standard Chartered Bank has been rooted in China for more than 100 years, witnessing China's 40 years of reform and opening up, and is also a participant and beneficiary of the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Lin Yuandong, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank's Greater Bay Area, was interviewed by a reporter from Southern Network a few days ago, talking about cross-border finance and the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, from actions to concepts, the two sides collided with wonderful sparks.
Policies continue to increase and inject financial impetus
The acceleration of connectivity between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has further enhanced Standard Chartered Bank's confidence in the continued growth and prosperity of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Compared with other regions at home and abroad, "the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is becoming a fertile ground for nurturing the innovative development of modern service industries, and high-quality development of the service industry will also help the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to take off from large to strong," Lin Yuandong said.
Lin Yuandong believes that as the region with the highest degree of openness and the strongest economic vitality in China, the service industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area started early and started from a high starting point, and has three major characteristics in the development of modern service industry. First, with strong policy assistance, from the central to the local level, policies and measures to effectively promote the innovative development of the modern service industry have been continuously implemented. From the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to the recent "Overall Plan for the Construction of the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone" and the "Plan for Comprehensively Deepening the Reform and Opening-up of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone", it is clearly proposed to accelerate the development of modern service industries; second, the unique location advantage, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area spans Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and is the gateway connecting China and the world. With the acceleration of the interconnection between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the innovation advantages of the service industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are becoming increasingly prominent; the third is the unique first-mover advantage, as The region with the highest degree of openness and the strongest economic vitality in China, the service industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area started early and started from a high starting point. Taking the financial industry as an example, this is the region with the highest density of rare financial center cities in the world, and in 2020, 5 cities in China ranked among the top 20 financial center cities in the world, of which 3 are located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Members of the public enter Standard Chartered Bank to handle business.
Lin Yuandong said that he believes that with the increasingly close convergence of the financial systems and rules of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and the continuous advancement of financial opening up and innovation, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will surely become a demonstration area for the deep integration of the financial industries of the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao, and a pilot area for China to connect with international high-standard financial operation rules. As a result, the bank has also set a five-year target for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area business, that is, to double its annual revenue after five years compared with 2020, and has formulated corresponding strategic plans for different customer groups.
"Finance + technology" drives innovation and development
In May last year, the People's Bank of China and four other departments issued the Opinions on Financial Support for the Construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, proposing to support banks to carry out cross-border loan business. It can be seen that under the framework of opening up and cooperation, commercial exchanges in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area have become more frequent and close, and the demand of enterprises in financial services such as cross-border payment and trade financing has increased significantly, bringing new transformation and development opportunities for banks' cross-border financial business.
Lin Yuandong said that the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area provides a huge development opportunity for financial institutions rooted here, and they hope to use their network advantages and business expertise, such as RMB internationalization, trade financing, bond market, financial innovation, wealth management and sustainable finance, etc., to better serve customers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Last year, the Shenzhen Municipal Government issued offshore RMB local bonds, in which Standard Chartered Bank participated, and not long ago, it also successfully docked with the Shenzhen "single window" platform. At the same time, after the China Association of Interbank Market Dealers announced the launch of the relevant pilots, Standard Chartered Bank also supported enterprises in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to issue the first sustainable panda bond in China's interbank market.
In addition to service upgrades, with the in-depth development of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain have developed rapidly. In order to respond to market demand and adapt to the service model changes brought about by financial technology innovation, since last year, financial technology-related policies such as the "14th Five-Year Plan" for financial reform and development in Guangdong Province have been launched successively, forming a considerable policy system, and cross-border financial business innovation has also entered the fast lane of development.
At the Guangdong Financial Innovation Awards organized and commended by the Guangdong Provincial People's Government last year, Standard Chartered Bank's "Supply Chain Finance Innovation Project Based on underlying blockchain technology" was selected by Standard Chartered Bank to open up an efficient and reliable financial service "fast lane" for enterprises through blockchain technology. It is reported that the aXess Innovation Lab set up in the center of the Standard Chartered Greater Bay Area has also introduced a variety of emerging technologies, including blockchain, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence robots, etc., which will be used to promote the digital transformation of banks and the application of scientific and technological innovation in the future, bringing better products and services to customers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
In Lin Yuandong's view, financial institutions need to further consolidate their foundations in order to continue to develop their business in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. He mentioned that in the future, he will focus on the construction of talent team, infrastructure and coordination mechanism, and actively participate in the economic construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Related Stories:
GBA financial markets to be more open and cooperative: CEO of the GBA, Standard Chartered Bank
Reporter | Zhan Haishan He Jingwen Wei Shen
Video | Zhang Yeyi Liang won
Design | Zhang Guiqing
Planning | Southern Network Economic News Center Group External Communication Center
![The new farmers stand on the "C position" of rural revitalization and have great potential[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)