The 2025 Lujiazui Forum was successfully held from June 18-19, during which central financial authorities, the People's Bank of China, National Financial Regulatory Administration, China Securities Regulatory Commission, and State Administration of Foreign Exchange collectively released a comprehensive package of significant financial policies. Forum participants engaged in vibrant discussions around the theme "Financial Opening, Cooperation and High-Quality Development amid Global Economic Changes," producing remarkable insights and achieving complete success.
Following the forum's conclusion, various media outlets published extensive commentary, fully acknowledging Shanghai's achievements in international financial center construction, the collaborative working framework between central and local governments, and the forum's outcomes, while providing prospects for Shanghai International Financial Center's future development. Currently, through joint efforts by municipal financial authorities and central financial management departments, related policies are being implemented progressively, with forum results being further consolidated and expanded.
Two months have passed since the 2025 Lujiazui Forum concluded on August 19. This compilation organizes the "Lujiazui Forum Impact" coverage into sections including media commentary, STAR Market reform, sci-tech bonds, cross-border and offshore finance, tech-finance, and other policy measures for reference and study.
**Media Commentary**
Financial media analysis pointed out that the 2025 Lujiazui Forum has concluded, serving as a barometer for China's financial reform and development. The new measures, topics, and concepts from the forum period have just entered the "construction phase," focusing on intensive policies, expanding openness, and innovative development, with Shanghai International Financial Center construction exploring new paths and embarking on new journeys.
Commentary highlighted that the interaction between finance and technology became a frequently mentioned keyword at this year's Lujiazui Forum. On one hand, finance empowers technology by providing relay-style comprehensive financial services, injecting momentum into technological innovation. On the other hand, technology empowers finance, profoundly changing financial industry operating rules, with artificial intelligence-led technological innovation irreversibly reshaping the global financial industry.
Analysis emphasized that in terms of financial and technological integration, countries stand at the same starting line globally. Looking worldwide, Shanghai possesses unique financial and technological resources. Among global cities, few international metropolises can simultaneously possess the functions of economic, financial, trade, shipping, and technological innovation centers. Shanghai is already pioneering efforts to leverage its advantages and promote coordinated construction of Shanghai International Financial Center and International Technology Innovation Center.
Media coverage noted that intensity was many people's most intuitive feeling about this year's forum. On the opening day, central financial management departments collectively delivered substantial support policies: the People's Bank of China announced eight financial opening measures to be implemented in Shanghai, the National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly released the "Action Plan for Supporting Shanghai International Financial Center Construction" with Shanghai Municipal Government, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced the launch of a new round of STAR Market deepening reforms.
Commentary emphasized that Shanghai stands at the forefront of China's opening-up, and this international financial center city shoulders the responsibility of testing systems, measuring pressure, and exploring new paths for the country. It must make new achievements in promoting accelerated concentration and efficient allocation of financial elements and resources, advancing to higher capabilities.
Analysis pointed out that high-level top-level design opens a new chapter in Shanghai's financial development. The Central Financial Committee issued the "Opinions on Supporting the Acceleration of Shanghai International Financial Center Construction," with the overall goal of "building an international financial center matching China's comprehensive national strength and international influence within five to ten years," implementing targeted policies around six core tasks including deepening financial market construction and building an offshore financial system.
**STAR Market Reform**
To implement the "China Securities Regulatory Commission's Opinion on Setting Up a Sci-Tech Growth Layer on the STAR Market to Enhance System Inclusiveness and Adaptability," and further deepen STAR Market reform, Shanghai Stock Exchange officially released supporting business rules including the "STAR Market Listed Company Self-Regulatory Guidance No. 5 - Sci-Tech Growth Layer" on July 13.
Exchange officials answered questions about the overall situation of business rule formulation and revision, how to steadily and orderly advance reform implementation, and the connection between the pre-review mechanism and current stock issuance and listing review mechanisms.
To earnestly implement the new "Nine Articles," "STAR Market Eight Articles," and STAR Market "1+6" policy requirements, Shanghai Stock Exchange recently held special symposiums with leading sponsor institutions to exchange views and fully listen to opinions and suggestions. The exchange will strengthen communication and policy interpretation with market participants at all levels according to CSRC unified deployment, deepen market consensus, accelerate typical case implementation, create demonstration effects, stabilize market expectations, enhance market confidence, and better serve the real economy and new quality productive forces development.
On July 14, Shanghai Stock Exchange held a STAR Market sci-tech growth layer special training meeting for securities companies, with over 330 representatives from compliance, risk control, brokerage business, and technical departments from 120 securities companies participating. The training aimed to help securities companies timely and accurately understand the overall approach and main content of STAR Market "1+6" reform policy measures and supporting rules.
Since the STAR Market reform "1+6" policies were launched, Shanghai Stock Exchange has successively held policy briefings in key Yangtze River Delta cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei, jointly with local government departments and securities regulatory bureaus. Over 800 representatives from local finance, technology, and industry departments, key parks, more than 400 Yangtze River Delta technology enterprises, and market institutions participated.
On the sixth anniversary of STAR Market's launch, Shanghai Stock Exchange conducted special research at Shanghai's "Model Space" and jointly held an artificial intelligence industry chain enterprise symposium with Xuhui District People's Government, engaging in in-depth exchanges with key enterprises, investment institutions, and sponsor institutions to accelerate the construction of an ecosystem suitable for the AI sci-tech innovation era.
On June 24, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Listing Review Committee issued a meeting announcement, scheduled to hold a listing review committee meeting on July 1 to review the listing application of Wuhan Heyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Heyuan Bio"), a STAR Market candidate. This marked the first enterprise applying for STAR Market's fifth listing standard since establishing the growth layer and restarting unprofitable enterprise applications under the fifth standard. Heyuan Bio successfully passed the review on July 1.
On August 14, Shanghai Stock Exchange's website showed that Xi'an Yeswei Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Xi'an Yeswei") received approval from the exchange's listing committee for its STAR Market IPO. Xi'an Yeswei is the first unprofitable IPO candidate accepted by Shanghai Stock Exchange since the "STAR Market Eight Articles" release. Industry insiders believe this approval reflects the exchange's increasing inclusiveness toward unprofitable "hard technology" enterprises, effectively promoting the virtuous cycle of technology-capital-industry.
Analysis pointed out that CSRC's launch of STAR Market layered reform through the "1+6" new policies has drawn high market attention. This reform introduces institutional professional investor systems and IPO pre-review mechanisms for quality technology enterprises through pilot open measures, better leveraging market mechanisms to identify and screen quality technology enterprises, reducing technology enterprises' listing concerns, and further enhancing STAR Market's system inclusiveness and adaptability for technological innovation and new quality productive forces development.
**Sci-Tech Bonds**
On June 18, ten public fund companies including Fuguo, Great Wall, Southern, Harvest, China Merchants, GF, E Fund, Penghua, China AMC, and Bosera collectively submitted applications for the first batch of sci-tech bond ETFs. Sci-tech bond ETFs serve as a hub role for capital market support of technological innovation, helping to improve sci-tech bond liquidity and promote interconnection among various capital market segments for efficient financial resource allocation.
On July 7, the first batch of ten sci-tech bond ETFs rapidly launched issuance. According to third-party channels, all ten sci-tech bond ETFs sold out in one day, raising a total of 30 billion yuan, with institutional investors as major buyers. Industry insiders believe sci-tech bond ETF launches have important strategic significance, effectively playing a positive role in serving national strategy and market capital guidance, filling the gap in public funds' "tech-finance" bond fund field, and promoting "financial flow" toward hard technology with precision.
On July 10 evening, the first batch of sci-tech bond ETFs collectively issued fund establishment announcements, with net subscription amounts exceeding 2.9 billion yuan during the offering period.
For public funds, the most watched recent development has been the submission and approval of sci-tech bond ETFs. The rapid approval of sci-tech bond ETFs from intensive submission to quick approval and determination of issuance dates has been remarkably swift. The rapid approval of sci-tech bond ETFs marks a substantial step in building China's bond market "technology sector," guiding more funds toward technological innovation fields to support sci-tech enterprises' R&D investment and project construction, while promoting the transformation of technological achievements into real productive forces.
On July 17, the first batch of sci-tech bond ETFs were listed, marking not only an important expansion of the ETF product matrix but also formally entering a new stage of domestic bond ETF market support for "hard technology" development, opening new paths for promoting deep integration of technology, industry, and finance, representing an important measure for capital markets to focus on serving technological innovation and new quality productive forces development.
Since sci-tech bond related policies landed, as of July 20, 2025, sci-tech bond issuance reached 768.4 billion yuan. Market buyer institutions have also actively participated, with public fund ETFs and bank wealth management products increasing allocation efforts. The current bond market ecosystem is gradually improving, including establishing investor suitability management systems, optimizing investor protection systems, diversified product innovation, and rich credit risk management tools, laying foundations for private sci-tech bond development.
This year, benchmark credit ETFs and sci-tech bond ETFs have taken turns driving rapid bond ETF market development. According to Choice data, as of July 22, total bond ETF scale exceeded the 500 billion yuan milestone, growing nearly 200% from year-end levels.
**Cross-Border Finance and Offshore Finance**
Recently, cross-border financial service platform new offshore international trade business background verification application scenarios, innovative free trade account services providing international-standard settlement services for cross-border e-commerce, allowing non-resident foreign currency deposit rates to reference international practices for market-based pricing, and enhancing RMB Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) functions and global network coverage, among other measures implementing the "Shanghai International Financial Center Action Plan for Further Improving Cross-Border Financial Service Convenience," have begun accelerating implementation. Through digitalization combined with institutional innovation, Shanghai's explorations continue improving cross-border financial efficiency, reducing transaction costs, and helping more enterprises participate in international competition and cooperation more safely, conveniently, and efficiently.
Recently, the central bank announced it will conduct comprehensive offshore trade financial service reform pilots in Lingang New Area. This reform centers on "offshore specialized subsidiaries + audit-free settlement," optimizing offshore trade receipt and payment deviation assessments for pilot banks, thereby eliminating "pre-event" authenticity reviews and achieving comprehensive liberalization of front-line offshore trade business, fundamentally solving offshore trade settlement efficiency challenges and providing key institutional support for Shanghai's international trade center construction.
In the first month of Shanghai Lingang New Area's offshore trade financial service comprehensive reform pilot, enterprises have efficiently completed offshore trade capital receipts and payments through this model, with cumulative scale of approximately 500 million yuan. This pilot scheme pioneered using offshore trade specialized subsidiaries as carriers, with pilot banks providing "audit-free" settlement for pilot enterprises, compressing the 2-3 working day settlement process to "second-level" efficiency, benchmarking international highest standards and achieving equivalent efficiency with mature offshore centers like Hong Kong and Singapore.
Currently, Lingang New Area's offshore trade financial service comprehensive reform pilot has achieved positive progress. As of July 18, participating offshore trade specialized companies completed 22 offshore trade transactions, with total cross-border receipts and payments of 648 million yuan. Next, the People's Bank of China Shanghai Headquarters will advance qualified banks and enterprises to conduct offshore trade financial service comprehensive reform pilot business, continuously expand policy beneficiaries, and actively explore digital RMB applications in offshore trade settlement.
On August 1, Bank of Communications Hong Kong Branch completed the world's first publicly issued Shanghai free trade offshore bond. This issuance followed the "both ends outside" principle, successfully attracting active subscriptions from quality investors in Hong Kong, Middle East, and other regions. This successful issuance has important milestone significance, not only providing new financing channels for financial markets but also further promoting international capital flows.
**Tech-Finance**
The interaction between finance and technology became a frequently mentioned keyword at the 2025 Lujiazui Forum. Currently, multiple banking financial institutions are actively exploring financial support for technological innovation and cultivating new quality productive forces, forming various distinctive experiences and practices through building diversified relay-style tech-finance service systems and resolving "expectation mismatch" problems.
In recent years, Shanghai has leveraged the opportunity of deepening sci-tech finance reform pilot zone construction, fully utilizing advantages of complete financial markets and concentrated financial institutions, gradually building a comprehensive, multi-level, full-coverage, sustainable full life-cycle sci-tech finance service system. The "Shanghai solution" for financial support of technological innovation is taking shape.
On June 29, China's first brain-computer interface future industry cluster "Brain Intelligence World" began construction in Shanghai. From the Shanghai solution written by the brain-computer interface future industry, we can glimpse this city's efforts to advance in the fierce global sci-tech competition tracks. Leveraging international financial center and international technology innovation center advantages, Shanghai is accelerating construction of a full-cycle, diversified, relay-style tech-finance service system, cultivating more sci-tech innovation explosion points.
From January to May this year, Shanghai's equity investment fund fundraising scale reached 120.2 billion yuan, up 16.2% year-on-year. Behind the data increase is Shanghai's major chess game of developing sci-tech direct financing. From initial angel investment, to VC (venture capital) and PE (private equity investment) directly related to equity investment fund fundraising scale, to final IPO (initial public offering), Shanghai's exploration along this sci-tech investment and financing chain has never stopped.
**Other Policy Measures**
On July 26, the China Capital Market Institute establishment meeting and first member representative assembly were held in Shanghai. The meeting approved the "China Capital Market Institute Charter" and other important systems, establishing seven professional committees for macroeconomics and industry, market stability and risk control, innovative development, market microstructure, futures and derivatives, international markets and opening-up, and rule of law and investor protection. CSRC Chairman Wu Qing was elected as the first board chairman.
As an important tool supporting stable progress of global trade and shipping industries, shipping insurance development has always been closely connected with international trade patterns and shipping market changes. Currently, Chinese export enterprises have surging demand for risk protection, bringing development opportunities for shipping insurance. The "Shanghai International Financial Center Action Plan for Further Improving Cross-Border Financial Service Convenience" and "Action Plan for Supporting Shanghai International Financial Center Construction" among other policy measures clearly mention strengthening insurance support for export enterprises and supporting insurance companies to provide insurance services for shipping and related fields based on China's new export advantages, trends, and industry characteristics, vigorously advancing Shanghai international reinsurance center construction and shipping insurance development.
A "High-Quality Reinsurance Development" special conference was held on June 19, discussing how to fully leverage reinsurance risk dispersion functions, enhance China's reinsurance global voice, and strengthen reinsurance service capabilities.
CSRC Chairman Wu Qing stated at the 2025 Lujiazui Forum on June 18 to "further enhance convenience for various foreign capital participation in China's capital market, allowing global investors to share China's innovative development opportunities more smoothly and fully." Currently, international capital's allocation enthusiasm for Chinese assets continues rising, with multiple foreign institutions including Invesco, JPMorgan Asset Management, Julius Baer, Neuberger Berman, and UBS Securities recently expressing optimism about China market prospects. China's capital market and foreign institutions are forming a new "mutual pursuit" pattern of deep interaction, with China becoming a global investment "preferred destination."
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