From October 21st to 24th, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) International Banking Operations Seminar 2024, known as the "Olympics" of the financial world, was held in Beijing. This marks the first time in the 44-year history of the conference that it has been hosted in a mainland Chinese city. Participants engaged in discussions and exchanges on the conference theme "The Future of Finance, Collaborative Connectivity," as well as related topics.
It is understood that the Sibos annual conference is a landmark international financial industry conference organized by the global cooperative international organization SWIFT, which began in 1978 and is hosted by international financial centers in Europe, the Americas, and Asia on a rotating basis. Hong Kong, China, has hosted the Sibos annual conference in 1991 and 2009.
Yin Yong, Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee and Mayor, stated at the opening ceremony that hosting the SWIFT International Banking Operations Seminar 2024 in Beijing not only highlights the vitality and dynamism of China and Beijing's high-quality development but also demonstrates China's firm determination to open up its financial sector to the outside world. This will effectively promote deeper communication and exchange among global financial institutions and contribute to the development of international financial cooperation.
In recent years, China has lifted foreign ownership restrictions in the banking, securities, and insurance sectors, attracting more than 110 foreign financial institutions to operate in China. Lu Lei, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, said at the opening ceremony: "The People's Bank of China is continuously promoting high-level opening up of China's financial industry. We will expand the interconnection of domestic and foreign financial markets and further support high-quality Chinese enterprises to go abroad for listing and bond issuance. At the same time, we also encourage China's sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, and other operating entities to continue investing abroad."
The conference brought together leading institutions with a high degree of internationalization among exhibitors. The exhibition was divided into a main exhibition and a financial technology exhibition. The main exhibition area featured 133 financial institutions and third-party institutions, with 114 foreign institutions, accounting for 86%. Among them were 24 globally systemically important financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, HSBC, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Bank of China, as well as the Central Treasury Registration and Settlement Co., Ltd., China Foreign Exchange Trade Center, Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, and Shanghai Clearing House. The financial technology exhibition featured more than 50 companies, including the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Center, which was exhibiting for the first time.
Gu Wei, Head of Global Corporate Payments for Greater China and Product Director for Greater China at JPMorgan Chase, said that by gathering participants from different global markets for various discussions and exchanges, the Sibos 2024 conference will promote communication and cooperation between Chinese and international financial institutions, further promoting interconnectivity among the global financial industry, and helping to expand the breadth and depth of China's financial market opening.
"The opening of China's financial industry is an important support for the development of China's technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, and for strengthening the development of high-quality financial services for major strategies, key areas, and weak links," said Zhang Chudong, Managing Partner of KPMG's Asia-Pacific and China Financial Services. The Sibos 2024 conference provides us with a platform to discuss with the global financial community how to respond to changes and seize opportunities.
With its rising status in the international financial system, the renminbi has become the fourth most active currency in global payments. Liao Yijian, Co-Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Asia-Pacific, said that the global use of the renminbi is far from proportional to China's current economic size. In recent years, with economic growth, various measures to accelerate the internationalization of the renminbi have been introduced, including the continuous increase in the scale of renminbi payments and trade financing, the steady progress of the digital renminbi pilot projects, and the continuous optimization and expansion of various "interconnectivity" mechanisms between the mainland and Hong Kong. Despite this, there is still a lot of room for growth in the use of the renminbi in Hong Kong and global markets.
"In the future, China's industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation will open up new 'blue oceans' for financial institutions, the rapid growth in demand for asset management services will bring huge market opportunities, China's comprehensive green transformation of economy and society will require more diversified financial support, the internationalization of the renminbi will further enrich the global monetary system and financial market choices, and foreign financial institutions participating in the development of the Chinese market will welcome better conditions and broader space," said Ge Haijiao, Chairman of the Bank of China.
Lu Lei also stated at the conference that the People's Bank of China will further support qualified banks from various countries to join the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) to facilitate cross-border renminbi settlement.