On May 20, the two-day Tsinghua PBCSF Global Finance Forum draws to a conclusion. Academic and industry leaders from all over the world join together over “Financial Reform, Opening-Up and Stability in the New Era”, shedding light on hot financial issues and China’s experience in financial reform and opening-up from the perspectives of policies, theories and practices, providing their incisive, problem-solving discussions, and their constructive, forward-looking suggestions. Covered by hundreds of domestic and foreign media agencies, the Forum draws wide attention and lively responded by thousands of participants.

The opening ceremony was addressed by WU Xiaoling, Chairwoman and Dean, Tsinghua PBCSF; Former Deputy Governor, the People’s Bank of China. Keynote speeches were delivered by ZHOU Xiaochuan, Vice Chairman and Chief Delegate of China, Boao Forum for Asia; Honorary Dean, Tsinghua PBCSF; Vice Chairman, 12^th CPPCC National Committee; Former Governor, the People’s Bank of China and CHEN Wenhui, Vice Chair, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).

WU Xiaoling believes that at the time of co-existence of prosperity and disorder, the shift from old to new dynamics, and when innovation is not coordinated with corporate governance, it brings a great challenge to financial supervision that whether China’s financial industry advance steadily in the process of deleveraging and defusing risks, and whether China’s financial industry will remain competitive with further opening-up. She also stressed that the orderly and rational opening-up of the financial industry, internally and externally, will lead to development and prosperity. If not, it will lead to crisis and recession. Echoing the call of our time, she encouraged financial professionals to explore a path of financial reform and opening-up with Chinese characteristics while making every effort to forestall systemic financial risks.

Ten years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, ZHOU Xiaochuan elaborated the theoretical basis of financial policy making. Inter-disciplinary research on financial system stability started at the wake of the crisis. Based on theories such as control theory and electronic engineering, the Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund adopted pro-/counter-cyclical macro-prudential policy frameworks. Such methodologies need retooling before they can find application for the post-crisis period. In the future, continuous functions may be used for policy making and response, dynamic calibration to simulate real-world conditions, and vector analysis to solve complicated problems.

CHEN Wenhui noted that the past 40 years of financial reform and opening-up have improved the development of financial industry and the competitiveness of financial institutions, making China one of the key banking and insurance markets in the world. However, as domestic financial institutions are sharpening their edge in a maturing industry, the market share of their foreign peers remains at a low level. Continued financial opening-up is, therefore, necessitated by both the internal and the external environment. CBIRC is stepping up efforts to implement a series of opening-up measures, including relaxing curbs for foreign investors to set up financial institutions, allowing foreign banks to expand their business and optimizing regulation for foreign financial institutions. Meanwhile, it is balancing opening-up with risk prevention on the basis of prudent, orderly, equality and mutual benefit to improve regulation. China’s financial opening-up is a two-way street: it invites good companies in, and kicks bad companies out.

During the two days, the Forum held seven themed sessions: “Reform and Opening-up: A New Start”, “Financial Regulation and Risk Prevention”, “Capital Market and Real Economy”, “Prospect of Fintech under Stringent Regulation”, “Sino-US Trade and Financial Opening-up”, “Outlooks of Asset Management”, and “Financial Impetus to Cultural Prosperity”,  with a closed-door luncheon (“Financial Development and Targeted Poverty Alleviation”) and two evening sessions (“Brand · Driving the Future” and “China and South-South Countries - Trade, Investment and Finance”).

The Forum also celebrated the fifth anniversary of TSINGHUA Financial Review, the release of China Financial Policy Report 2018, and the inauguration of three research centers (respectively for Research Center for Blockchain, RUNBO Digital Finance Research Center, and Research Center for Smart Finance) under the Institute for Fintech Research, Tsinghua University.

The Forum was hosted by Tsinghua University, organized by Tsinghua PBCSF, and co-organized by the National Institute of Financial Research and the Institute for Fintech Research, Tsinghua University. The previous Forums were successfully held in 2014, 2015 and 2017, attracting thousands of renowned policy-makers, corporate executives and scholars to participate in discussions and exchange insights on the opportunities and challenges the industry is facing, arousing substantial attention from the financial services sector, academia and media.