Pan Gongsheng: The financial market has enhanced resilience and withstood multiple rounds of high-intensity external shocks.

Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People's Bank of China, stated at the 2026 Lujiazui Forum that the modernization of the financial market is an important part of China's economic system reform and a vivid epitome of China's reform and opening-up. Over the past thirty years, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's financial market has gradually evolved from initially being credit market-dominated to developing into a modern financial market system with various sub-markets including stocks, bonds, currencies, gold, bills, commodities, derivatives, etc., synergistically developing, well-functioning, and comprehensive in types. This has strongly promoted China's stable economic growth, transformation and upgrading, and high-quality development. The depth and breadth of the market have greatly increased, and its international status and influence have achieved a leapfrog development. In the stock market, from the initial 8 stocks on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the early 1990s to the current 5,500 listed companies on the A-share market with a total market value exceeding 110 trillion yuan, ranking second globally. In the bond market, from the less than 500 billion yuan balance when the interbank bond market was established in 1997 to the current total size exceeding 200 trillion yuan, stably ranking second in the world. The foreign exchange market now covers over 40 major currencies globally, with an annual trading volume exceeding $42 trillion. Market-oriented mechanisms for issuance, trading, etc. have been comprehensively established. Reforms for interest rate and exchange rate liberalization continue to deepen. Multi-layered capital markets such as the SME board, ChiNext, and STAR market are continuously improving. The financial market infrastructure system including stock exchanges, the Central Clearing Corporation, the Foreign Exchange Trading Center, the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the Shanghai Clearing House, etc., has been basically completed, with the majority of China's main financial market infrastructure located in Shanghai. The resilience of the financial market has been enhanced, withstanding multiple rounds of high-intensity external shocks. Two-way opening-up is steadily advancing, deeply integrating into the global financial system. Foreign financial institutions have been allowed access, attracting long-term overseas capital such as QFII and RQFII, and launching cross-border connectivity mechanisms such as Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, Bond Connect, Swap Connect, ETF Connect. Renminbi bonds and stocks have been included in major global indexes such as MSCI, FTSE Russell, Bloomberg Barclays, with overseas institutions and individuals holding over 10 trillion yuan worth of domestic Renminbi financial assets.