The Bund Summit: A Shanghai Showcase of the Fintech Wave

The Bund Summit: A Shanghai Showcase of the Fintech WaveThe 2024 Bund Summit officially opened, bringing together over 10 Chinese and foreign academicians, more than 2,000 leading figures in the fintech industry, and tens of thousands of attendees on the Bund in Shanghai. This gathering of global wisdom has become a barometer for observing fintech development trends in China and the world, further solidifying Shanghai's position as a global fintech center

The Bund Summit: A Shanghai Showcase of the Fintech Wave

The 2024 Bund Summit officially opened, bringing together over 10 Chinese and foreign academicians, more than 2,000 leading figures in the fintech industry, and tens of thousands of attendees on the Bund in Shanghai. This gathering of global wisdom has become a barometer for observing fintech development trends in China and the world, further solidifying Shanghai's position as a global fintech center.

A Sense of Urgency to Keep Up

The fintech wave stems from the pursuit of efficiency and convenience. In 1978, a blizzard engulfed New York City, and Citibank's ATMs became the only option for people to access funds, revealing the immense potential of combining finance and technology.

Since then, fintech development has been like a surging torrent, constantly spawning new technologies and models, driving constant innovation in the financial sector. Mobile payments and Apple Pay are just the tip of the iceberg. The application of technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud computing has propelled this revolution to new heights.

The View from Within

As one of the world's leading financial centers, Shanghai has been relentlessly pushing forward in the fintech field, accumulating a stellar track record. According to Forbes' list of the most influential fintech companies in China, 40% of the top 50 are based in Shanghai.

In 2020, Shanghai issued the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Construction of Shanghai's Fintech Center," outlining a five-year plan to establish Shanghai as a globally competitive fintech hub. In recent years, Shanghai has made significant strides in areas such as generative AI large models, blockchain, cloud-native technologies, and privacy computing.

Two financial large models, "Miaoxiang" from Oriental Fortune and "Wuya" from Star Ring, have received regulatory approval from the Cyberspace Administration of China. Haitong Securities, in collaboration with SenseTime, has launched a multi-modal full-stack large model for the financial industry. Shanghai Stock Exchange's "SSEChain" and China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation's "CSDChain" have been established as industry-level blockchain infrastructure. China UnionPay, along with dozens of banks, insurance companies, and technology firms, has jointly built a homegrown and controllable privacy computing platform.

Shanghai has also taken on and implemented a series of leading application scenarios nationwide. The digital yuan pilot program is progressing smoothly, with 1.914 million merchant outlets accepting digital yuan payments. Innovative and distinctive scenarios have been launched, including the first cross-border payment through a "multi-lateral central bank digital currency bridge" and the first international crude oil cross-border digital yuan settlement transaction.

The capital market's fintech innovation pilot program has launched 28 pilot projects, ranking first in China, and the selection process for the second batch of pilot projects has also commenced. The People's Bank of China has released six batches of 23 innovative applications through its fintech regulatory innovation toolkit, with 14 successfully completing testing, again leading the nation.

In terms of talent development, Shanghai is actively building a fintech talent cultivation system. The Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance's "Certified Global Fintech Professional (CGFT)" talent certification program has partnered with close to 30 financial institutions, training over 40,000 students to date, with over 5,000 participating in exams and certification. The construction of fintech talent cultivation and practical training bases in Shanghai has begun, with three school-enterprise joint laboratories established, fostering collaboration between universities and businesses in fintech talent development.

Extending and Promoting Industry Experience

Shanghai's fintech is increasingly radiating influence internationally. Fintech companies like Ant Group, representing Shanghai's fintech sector, are leveraging their technological capabilities and application scenarios honed in China's vast market to expand their international operations. Products such as ZOLOZ (security technology), mPaaS (multi-terminal development platform), SOFAStack (cloud-native platform), ZAN (Web3 technology service platform), and Ant Chain (blockchain service) have successfully gone global, serving hundreds of clients worldwide.

A Shanghai financial regulatory official remarked that looking back, the numerous fintech projects they have been promoting over the past few years have converged into a powerful current, pushing Shanghai to a higher level of development.

The "Action Plan for Shanghai to Promote the High-Quality Development of a Global Fintech Center" is soon to be released, outlining 31 innovative and practical measures to boost Shanghai's fintech development, opening up new possibilities for the city.

Finding One's Own Answers

The Bund Summit is a showcase of Shanghai's fintech achievements and a platform for global fintech thought exchange.

At the first Bund Summit in 2020, a four-year-old girl from the Shanghai Xiaomuchan Kindergarten posed a question: "I want to know what the world will be like when I grow up?" Kevin Kelly, a "technology futurist," painted a picture of the future: smart glasses will allow us to see transactions and financial information on our shirts, artificial intelligence can help us make smart investments together, and blockchain technology can help create a trusted public ledger for everyone.

Four years have flown by, and Kevin Kelly's predictions are becoming reality in Shanghai: putting on VR gear allows you to virtually try on clothes on Taobao, "AI financial assistants" provide intelligent analysis of investment holdings and market sentiment interpretation, and Shanghai's "Pujiang Digital Chain" has identified 83 blockchain business models...

Countless industry insights are generated through intellectual exchanges at the Summit, and cutting-edge technologies are nurtured here for even greater potential. This chemical reaction is what makes the Bund Summit one of the "most anticipated global innovation technology conferences of the second half of 2024."

People are eagerly awaiting the latest insights from industry leaders like Kevin Kelly, Michael Jordan (US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Medicine member), and Steve Hoffman ("Silicon Valley godfather of startups"), the cutting-edge AI practices from over 100 global leading technology companies and academic institutions, the joint exploration of the future of AI by academicians, scholars, and industry professionals from diverse disciplines, and the exciting competition of the "Global Deepfake (Deepfake Technology) Attack and Defense Challenge"...

Tens of thousands of attendees have come to the banks of the Huangpu River, eager to observe the latest technologies, discuss cutting-edge ideas, grasp future trends, and find their own answers in the surging torrent of fintech, just like that little girl.