Inventory of the competitiveness of global fintech center cities: traditional international financial centers in Europe and the United States are firmly at the forefront, and domestic cities are catching up

21st Century Business Herald reporter Chen Zhi reported from Shanghai

With the rapid development of fintech in recent years, more and more cities are actively developing into global fintech hubs.

Among them, the effectiveness of many Chinese cities in building fintech hubs, and how to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses compared with overseas cities, has attracted much attention from the industry.

Recently, the "Global Fintech Center Development Index Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the Shanghai Fintech Industry Alliance shows that in the comprehensive ranking of the Fintech Index of major cities around the world, New York ranks first, followed by London, Shanghai and Beijing, which shows that Chinese cities have made good achievements in the construction of global Fintech Centers.

It is reported that the report comprehensively considers the economic development level of major cities in the world, urban innovation capabilities, urban financial technology development status, regional balanced distribution and other factors, and selects 28 key cities from the global cities as index research objects, including 15 foreign cities and 13 domestic cities. The index system of the Global Fintech Center Development Index comprehensively considers factors such as the scale of the fintech industry, innovation ability, fintech application level and industry development environment, and evaluates relevant cities from three aspects: fintech development level, fintech development potential and fintech development environment.

Specifically, the level of fintech development is an important indicator to measure the current development status of fintech in a city, mainly considering factors such as the scale of the fintech industry, the ability to allocate resources, and the degree of fintech application. The development potential of fintech is a comprehensive indicator to measure the future development expectations and potential momentum of fintech in a city, mainly considering the R&D investment and innovation achievements of financial institutions and fintech enterprises, as well as the scale of the financial industry and the scale of the information technology industry. The fintech development environment is a comprehensive evaluation of the overall development environment of a city's economy, policies, talents, and business environment.

According to the report, in terms of the level of financial technology development, New York and London are ahead of other cities in the world, and among domestic cities, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing also rank among the top.

In terms of fintech resource allocation capabilities, old international financial centers such as New York, Chicago and London still have obvious advantages, and Singapore has developed rapidly in regional resource allocation in recent years. The reason for this is that these traditional international financial centers gather a large number of financial institutions, which can more efficiently mobilize resources from all parties to improve their fintech industry layout. Among domestic cities, as an international financial center, Shanghai's resource allocation capacity is outstanding. Shanghai has the densest financial factor market and has been actively exploring digital transformation, regulatory technology and service upgrading, while Shenzhen has also developed faster than most cities in China, and Hong Kong has abundant resources of international financial institutions and still has advantages in global resource allocation.

In terms of fintech applications, domestic cities are generally ahead of foreign cities, such as Shanghai, which is more active in AI applications than other cities in China, and cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou also have rich AI application practices. Beijing and Hangzhou have outstanding performance in the application of blockchain and cloud computing technologies respectively.

In terms of the scale of the fintech industry, New York and San Francisco, which are backed by Wall Street and Silicon Valley resources, rank among the top in the world. Among domestic cities, Beijing ranks first, followed by Shenzhen and Shanghai, and Shanghai still has a lot of room for improvement in the scale of the fintech industry.

In terms of fintech development potential, Beijing, San Francisco, Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai have the potential to rank among the top in the world. It is reported that the development potential index of financial technology mainly refers to factors such as R&D investment and innovation achievements, the scale of the financial industry, and the scale of the information technology industry. At present, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tokyo have outstanding performance in terms of R&D investment and innovation achievements in financial technology. New York and San Francisco have obvious advantages in the scale of the financial industry, while Beijing and San Francisco are relatively leading in the scale of the information technology industry.

Thanks to R&D investment and innovation achievements, as well as the outstanding performance of the scale of the information technology industry, Shanghai ranks among the top five in the world in terms of financial technology development potential index, but there is a significant gap between it and old international financial center cities such as New York and London in terms of the scale of the financial industry.

In terms of the fintech development environment, London, New York, Beijing, Singapore, Shanghai, and San Francisco rank among the top in the world. Among the domestic cities, Beijing and Shanghai have obvious advantages in the development environment of financial technology. Globally, New York, Chicago, Beijing, Shanghai, London, and Singapore have excelled in the cultivation of fintech talents. Thanks to the continuous investment in the field of new infrastructure in recent years, the new infrastructure environment in Beijing and Shanghai has developed rapidly, which has promoted the continuous optimization and progress of the fintech development environment in the two cities.

In terms of business environment, New York, Singapore, London and Hong Kong have better business environments than other cities. Beijing and Shanghai have relative advantages in terms of policy environment and talent environment. Among domestic cities, Beijing has a better performance in terms of talent environment, Beijing and Shanghai have more advantageous policy environments, and Shanghai has a better business environment than other cities in China. Hong Kong has also performed better than most cities in China in terms of new infrastructure environment, business environment and talent environment.

The report also points out that through the analysis of different dimensions of the global fintech center development index, it is found that domestic cities as a whole show strong fintech strength, but in the current fierce global competition, they still need to make continuous efforts to further improve the development level, development potential and development environment of fintech, constantly adapt to the changing market demand, and promote the innovation and sustainable development of fintech.

Therefore, the report suggests that the relevant domestic departments should start from four directions to promote the development of the fintech industry in domestic cities, one is to optimize the fintech ecology, accelerate the establishment and improvement of the government, industry, academia, research, and use collaborative innovation research mechanism, give full play to the advantages of all parties, and form a synergy; second, adopt differentiated strategies to cultivate the fintech industry in each city according to local conditions; and third, establish an inter-city synergy mechanism to promote the complementary resource advantages of cities and form a more overall strength of the national fintech development pattern.

As Shanghai actively builds a higher-level international financial center and a more globally influential science and technology innovation center, many experts and professional research institutions suggest that Shanghai should learn from the beneficial experience and practices of other global fintech center cities to further promote the development of the fintech industry.

The reporter was informed that the suggestions put forward by the Shanghai Fintech Industry Alliance and other institutions include five points: first, it is necessary to provide comprehensive support from the underlying technology to the upper-level policies to promote the fintech industry to become bigger and stronger; second, to support the opening and cooperation of the industry, consolidate and improve the level of financial technology application; third, to attach importance to the role of guidance funds, improve the efficiency of capital support for financial technology, and give full play to the role of financial empowerment in scientific and technological innovation; fourth, optimize the supply and demand of talents and growth conditions, and create a highland for financial technology talents, especially to strengthen the cultivation of financial technology compound talents; and fifth, to do a good job in financial technology"Bringing in and going out" to further strengthen international cooperation and expand the international influence of financial technology.

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