On October 21, the 11th North Bund Wealth and Culture Forum will be held on the banks of the Huangpu River. The forum witnessed the high-quality development of Hongkou. Hongkou was the first to propose the building of a wealth management highland in China in 2011. Till now, it has achieved a scale of nearly 8 trillion yuan in asset management. Hongkou has polished the golden signboard of finance in the process of fully building the North Bund of Shanghai and the Golden Triangle of the Huangpu River.
In the baptism of time, the financial industry of Hongkou has gradually shown two major characteristics: high and new, which is highly consistent with the future development direction of internationalization, specialization, digitization, and greening in Hongkou. It has not only become the engine power for the emergence of the North Bund but also the source of vitality for the development of Hongkou.
Building a highland for global asset management
The first one was impressive. In 2011, Caitong Fund Management Co., Ltd. officially settled at the North Bund, becoming the first public fund company in Hongkou. A leader has emerged. Over the next decade, the number of Hongkou’s public fund management companies increased to 18, accounting for one-eighth of the country. Besides, 27 futures risk management subsidiaries (one-sixth of the country’s total) and 15 private equity firms each with a scale of over 10 billion yuan have come to Hongkou.
Meanwhile, high-quality financial enterprises have settled in Hongkou. As of the end of 2022, the number of financial enterprises in Hongkou exceeded 2,000, while it was 78 at the beginning of 2011. The financial industry in Hongkou is increasingly highly concentrated. QDLP and QFLP pilot enterprises of international asset management institutions, such as Deutsche Bank and Amvescap, and a large number of foreign financial enterprises competed to settle in the district.
Manulife Financial (Canada), the world's fifth largest insurance asset management and century-old financial brand, set its headquarters on the North Bund in China this year as it admired the friendly business atmosphere of Hongkou, which proved the strong magnetic attraction of Hongkou's asset management highland. Capital is an important resource. Plus the landing of financial functional institutions and the establishment and operation of financial organizations, Hongkou’s finance, with its increasingly enhanced international capital operation ability, has become an important support for Hongkou to forge its future core competitiveness.
The goal of building a global asset management highland in Hongkou is clear and distinctive, and it is developing in a staggered manner with the Lujiazui Financial Zone. The pool of spring water is vigorously irrigating various fields of Hongkou's economy. Especially, it focused on new tracks such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and new energy to strengthen and refine characteristic industries and future industries. Relying on the advantages of financial resource agglomeration, Hongkou has established the Platform of the North Bund Technology Innovation Roadshow Center to promote the integration of capital and projects. At present, the platform has attracted more than 10 VCs and PEs, and 14 technological innovation teams, and continuously stimulated the vitality of technological innovation with financial vitality. Besides, Hongkou actively served the listing of enterprises. In 2021, Anlogic Information Technology, a chip development company, became the first company listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in Hongkou, marking a milestone. As of now, over a hundred companies in Hongkou have gone public, and high-quality enterprises have received strong support from market capital.
With the continuous improvement of Hongkou's financial ecosystem, Hongkou has assisted in building Shanghai Hedge Fund Park and Shanghai Financial Technology Park, and continuously exported innovative measures on capital serving the real economy by relying on these carriers. Moreover, the North Bund Listed Companies Association, the first listed companies association in the downtown area, was unveiled, and the construction of the North Bund Financial Port was launched. The district government has signed strategic cooperation documents with the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which continuously improved the financial ecosystem puzzle. As a favorable business environment emerged, Hongkou innovatively launched Xinyi Loan, Technology-related Loan, and Hongqi Loan to deeply solve the financing difficulties of regional micro and small enterprises.
Digitalization and greenization collaborate for innovation
At the 9th North Bund Wealth and Culture Forum, the Shanghai Financial Technology Park was unveiled and landed at Raffles North Bund. The park focused on cultivating high-end industry chains such as fin-tech development and exhibition, as well as relevant achievement transformation and capital operation. At present, North Bund Raffles has attracted multiple heavyweight fin-tech development and application demonstration enterprises to settle in, including JD Digital Technology, Huajing Securities, Dacheng Fund, Puyin Fin-tech, and Huawei East China Headquarters, thus driving them to become high-tax-revenue office buildings and gradually becoming new landmarks for the development of the North Bund financial technology.
The digitalization of the financial industry can be seen in Raffles Shopping Mall at the North Bund. Traditional financial institutions have also found soil at the North Bund, laying out digital transformation. Taking Puyin Fin-tech Company as an example, a holding subsidiary of SPDB established a wholly-owned company: Puyin Fin-Tech Co., Ltd. in Hongkou in 2021 to engage in financial information technology and other businesses. According to the district financial work bureau, fin-tech enterprises such as Puyin Fin-tech and JD Digital Technology can help accelerate the development and construction of the North Bund, promote the deep integration of finance and technology, and carry out the digital transformation of the North Bund.
China Postal Youhui Wanjia Company, a subsidiary of China Postal Savings Bank and the country's first online direct-selling bank, coincidentally settled at the North Bund in 2023. The trend of digital transformation and upgrading in the layout of traditional big finance and emerging finance on the North Bund has formed. This trend has an earlier foreshadowing. In 2020, the Shanghai Fin-tech Industry Alliance was established at the North Bund. In recent years, the alliance has vigorously promoted resource sharing and complementary advantages among various members of the industry chain. It is learned that fin-tech has the prospect of precise development on the supply side, and it has the role of promoting original innovation, technological innovation, and industry innovation in a coordinated manner. It will play an important role in the high-quality development of Hongkou’s finance, and it will also effectively promote the construction of the North Bund Technology Innovation Headquarters Cluster. At present, Hongkou is building a dual-north linkage spatial pattern, and another "north" is the North Mid-ring Technology Innovation Industry Cluster Belt. In August of this year, Rise Fin-tech, a fin-tech enterprise, officially settled at the North Mid-ring. Zhao Changning, Deputy General Manager of Rise Fin-tech, said that as a high-tech enterprise with financial attributes, the company needs a place like Hongkou to grow better.
If you want to color the soil of Hongkou’s finance, green is an important option. In recent years, with the highly concentrated financial industry, various internationally influential events have been held in Hongkou, such as the China Asset Management Annual Conference, the China Chief Economist Forum Annual Conference, the Peking University Global Financial Forum, the Blockchain Global Summit, and the North Bund Financiers Salon. In December last year, the 19th China International Financial Forum was held for the first time at the North Bund, with the theme of green finance innovation serving the high-quality development of the real economy, which resonated with Hongkou's aspiration for green and high-energy financial innovation.
In 2021, the national carbon emission trading market opened in Hongkou, and the operation and maintenance team was the Shanghai Environmental Energy Exchange, which has been rooted at the North Bund for many years. The first carbon finance center in China has set off at the North Bund. In the same year, the Green Finance 60 Persons’ Forum settled in Hongkou. In recent years, there have been frequent "carbon" actions in Hongkou, closely following the national "dual carbon" strategic goals. Relying on platforms such as the Shanghai Environment Exchange and the Green Technology Bank, Hongkou will comprehensively handle the implementation of the China Carbon Exchange, develop professional services such as carbon audit, carbon testing, carbon assessment, and carbon finance, and promote green transformation and upgrading of Hongkou's related industries.