(ATF) The People’s Bank of China has announced the release of China’s FinTech Development Indicators. This system is based on the central bank’s Fintech Development Plan issued for 2019-21 and has three main facets: institutional indicators, industry indicators and regional indicators.
The new indicators will act as a guide. They aim to create a set of comprehensive, scientific and quantifiable evaluation standards for the development of financial technology that can be promoted in China and globally – to standardise the statistics and results of financial technology, and optimise financial technology, the Securities Daily reported.
The new system will allow strategic deployment, and is aimed at strengthening the application of financial technology, and empowering financial services to improve quality and efficiency, while enhancing technical defence capabilities against financial risks.
From now on this will provide an important foundation for China’s financial technology planning and policy formulation, the central bank said.
The People’s Bank of China said in August 2019 that it wants to make its fintech sector globally competitive and use the industry as a “new engine” for country’s high-quality financial development.
Under the development plan for 2019-2021, China will improve the top-down design of the fintech industry, and strengthen risk controls, including an early warning regime on cross-market and cross-industry financial risks, the central bank said.
On Tuesday (Oct 20), Luo Yanfeng, deputy director and spokesperson of the PBoC’s General Office, said at a press conference for the 2020 Financial Street Forum Annual Meeting that the latest World Economic Outlook Report issued by the International Monetary Fund on October 13 forecast that the world will see economic growth drop by about 4.4% this year, and all major economies except China will suffer negative growth.
At the same time, the debt problems of low-income countries and some emerging market countries have become more serious, and the debt levels of some developed economies are also at historically high levels, which will seriously affect the global economic recovery.
In addition to the risk of economic recession, there has been a rise in geopolitical tensions, with a deepening of economic and trade friction between some countries, and the significant increase in global instability and uncertainty, he said.
Against such a complex and severe background, the Financial Street Forum opted to focus on the theme of “Financial Cooperation and Reform under Global Changes.”
Luo Yanfeng said the central bank was involved in two discussions in a parallel forum, and the themes were “Challenges and Opportunities in China’s Financial Industry” and “FinTech Development and Supervision.”
