Role of Shanghai Financial Court defined

THE Supreme People’s Court yesterday published a document defining the jurisdiction of a specialized court in Shanghai to deal with finance-related cases in the city.

According to the document, the Shanghai Financial Court, at the intermediate people’s court level, will be responsible for commercial cases such as disputes involving securities, futures, insurance, bills and financial lending. It will also deal with bankruptcy cases where financial institutions are the debtors and administrative cases with financial regulators as defendants.

Appellate trials of financerelated cases first heard by grassroots-level courts in Shanghai also fall into the court’s jurisdiction, the document said.

China’s top legislature has approved the establishment of the Shanghai Financial Court in April.

SPC President Zhou Qiang said in a report to the legislature that the court would help bolster the international influence of China’s financial justice, forestall financial risks, steer the financial sector to serve the real economy and build Shanghai into an international financial center by 2020.

Last year, courts in Shanghai heard more than 179,000 financerelated cases in the first instance. The number of such lawsuits in Shanghai grew by an average 51 percent annually from 2013 to 2017.