More plans to boost financial sector cooperation within Greater Bay Area

Financial cooperation across the Guangdong-Hong KongMacao Greater Bay Area (GBA) will deepen this year, as deputies of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) suggested exploring a futures exchange and free cross-border capital flows within the area.

NPC deputies from Shenzhen

in Guangdong Province suggested building a futures exchange with Hong Kong and Macao. In a plan published on May 14, the People’s Bank of China and other regulatory bodies released measures to boost innovation in the GBA’s financial sector and mitigate cross-border financial risks.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) on Saturday formed a special group and drew up an annual plan to support insurance institutes in the GBA to develop innovative insurance products, and to allow qualified banks and insurance institutes from Hong Kong and Macao to set up operating agencies within the GBA.

China has plans to recover its economy by researching innovative measures in the finance sector in the post-coronavirus era, such as financial openness and capital account convertibility, and the GBA can provide a platform to trial these initiatives, He Fei, a senior research fellow with the Bank of Communications, said.

“The hotly-anticipated improvements at the GBA this year would be consumers’ demand for financial services, notably the cross-border finance link, cross-border insurance link and cross-border mobile payment services,” He said.

The GBA will increasingly act as a “springboard” for mainland companies to expand overseas, including into the countries and regions involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an industry report showed.