A new ranking of China’s top financial centres puts Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen at the top of the list.
The China Development Institute released the latest China Financial Centre Index (CFCI) on 4 December at the 2020 China Local Financial Development Forum that was held in Shenzhen.
The index ranked 31 Chinese cities in terms of their competitiveness as financial centres, with Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou taking out the top four spots for the 12th consecutive year running.
Hangzhou rose one place to 5th position, while Chengdu slid one place to sixth position. Changsha saw the biggest improvement, rising three places to 15th position, and Shenyang posted the largest decline, sliding three places to 22nd.
2020 China Financial Centre Index
- Shanghai
- Beijing
- Shenzhen
- Guangzhou
- Hangzhou
- Chengdu
- Tianjin
- Chongqing
- Nanjing
- Wuhan
- Zhengzhou
- Xi’an
- Suzhou
- Dalian
- Changsha
- Jinan
- Qingdao
- Xiamen
- Fuzhou
- Ningbo
- Hefei
- Shenyang
- Wuxi
- Naning
- Kunming
- Nanchang
- Harbin
- Shijiazhuang
- Urumqi
- Changchun
- Wenzhou.
The added value of the 31 financial centres on the list was 4.4446 trillion yuan in 2019, after nearly a decade of steady gains. They accounted for a 57.7% share of the added value of China’s nationwide financial sector, for an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to last year.
The average added value growth of these 31 financial centres in 2019 was around 6.9%, for a rebound of 1.9 percentage points compared to the previous year. Suzhou’s financial sector saw the biggest added value increase that year with a rise of 12.8%.
The assets of legal person commercial banks in the 31 financial centres comprised 79.6% of the national total, while the assets of legal person insurance companies accounted for a 87.2% share.
The assets under management of legal person publicly offered fund management companies were 91.2% of the national total, and the total assets of legal person securities companies comprised 95.8% of the total.
The domestic and foreign currency deposits and lending balances of the 31 financial centres accounted for 51.5% and 52.3% of the national totals respectively, while these cities were also host to 48.6% of financial professionals in China.
Capital market utilisation levels of the 31 top Chinese financial centres also saw gains in 2019, with the listing of 154 A-share companies that raised 542.3 billion yuan.
