Li Yunze, Director of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission: Supports foreign financial institutions to expand their presence in areas such as wealth management, asset allocation, and insurance planning.

On June 18th, at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Shanghai Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone Development Forum, Li Yunze, director of the National Financial Regulatory Bureau, pointed out in his keynote speech that the middle-income group is continuously expanding, and wealth management is entering a golden period. China has the world's largest and continuously growing middle-income group, providing a huge and stable customer base for the wealth management industry. From the perspective of financial asset allocation, currently, cash and savings of Chinese households account for more than half, significantly higher than the average level of about 1/3 in OECD countries. As residents' wealth continues to accumulate, the demand for wealth management is transitioning towards diversification and professional allocation. In the past five years, the entrusted management assets of trusts, wealth management, and insurance asset management in China have grown at an average annual rate of about 8%, making it the world's second-largest asset and wealth management market. Supporting foreign institutions in expanding their presence in areas such as wealth management investment, asset allocation, and insurance planning to better meet the comprehensive financial needs of clients for wealth preservation and appreciation, promote the upgrading of the wealth management industry. Furthermore, the Financial Regulatory Bureau is vigorously promoting pilot projects such as equity investment by financial asset management companies and loans for mergers and acquisitions by technology companies, continuously exploring new paths for the development of technology finance. At the same time, technology is empowering financial transformation, with China's digital financial market rapidly developing and ranking at the top in the world. Foreign institutions are welcomed to actively participate in China's technology finance and digital finance practices, promoting a virtuous cycle of "technology-industry-finance". Li Yunze stated that the silver economy is booming, and there is great potential for pension finance. In recent years, China has been promoting the improvement of a multi-tiered and multi-pillar pension insurance system, expanding pension wealth management, pension savings, exclusive pension insurance, and commercial pension trials in an orderly manner, achieving initial results. It is hoped that more foreign institutions will actively participate in trials, better leverage their professional advantages in product design, actuarial science, investment management, and share the dividends of China's pension market development. The full text and translation provided here are excerpts from Li Yunze's speech at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Shanghai Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone Development Forum.