Hangzhou Set to Follow Beijing, Shanghai in Launch of Fintech Sandbox Trial

Hangzhou has become the latest Chinese city to put plans in motion for the launch of its own fintech sandbox trial.

On 19 May the Hangzhou municipal government convened a “policy interpretation meeting” for its fintech regulatory sandbox trial.

Hangzhou officials used the meeting as an opportunity to inform financial institutions and fintech companies of the application procedures for participating in the trials.

The Hangzhou Fintech Regulatory Sandbox plan was drafted by four authorities, including the Hangzhou branch of the Chinese central bank, the Zhejiang province banking and insurance regulator, the Zhejiang province financial office and the Hangzhou municipal financial office.

The move by Hangzhou follows the launch of fintech sandbox trials in Beijing and Shanghai, with at least three other cities set to soon follow.

On 5 De­cem­ber 2019 the Bei­jing mu­nic­i­pal fi­nan­cial reg­u­la­tor an­nounced via its of­fi­cial web­site that the Chi­nese cap­i­tal was “tak­ing the lead in launch­ing fin­tech in­no­va­tion reg­u­la­tory tri­als, and ex­plor­ing the es­tab­lish­ment of an ac­com­mo­dat­ing and pru­den­tial Chi­nese-edi­tion ‘reg­u­la­tory sand­box.'”

On 16 May the Beijing financial authority said that Beijing is currently in the process of advancing a second round of trials, after accepting a first batch of six pilot projects that were announced on 14 January.

On May 17 2020 The Shang­hai branch of the Peo­ple’s Bank of China (PBOC) an­nounced the launch of work on its own Shang­hai Fin­tech In­no­va­tion Reg­u­la­tory Trial (上海金融科技创新监管试点).

PBOC an­nounced in April that fin­tech reg­u­la­tory tri­als in the style of the Bei­jing pi­lot would be ex­panded to a to­tal of six more cities, in­clud­ing Shang­hai, Chongqing, Shen­zhen, Xiong’an New Dis­trict, Hangzhou and Suzhou. 

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