Focusing on the "Five Major Tasks¡± in Finance, Shanghai Financial Court Releases Opinions on Service and Support along with Typical Cases

     On the morning of June 30, the Shanghai Financial Court held a press conference to release the Several Opinions of the Shanghai Financial Court on Serving and Supporting the Development of the ¡°Five Major Tasks¡± in Finance (hereinafter referred to as the "Several Opinions") and typical cases related to serving and supporting the ¡°Five Major Tasks¡± in finance (hereinafter referred to as the "typical cases"). Zhao Hong, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and President of the Shanghai Financial Court, provided relevant information and key content of the Several Opinions. Gu Quan, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice President, announced the typical cases, while Tian Jun, Member of the Party Leadership Group, Director of the Political Department, and the court's spokesperson, presided over the press conference.

Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee adopted the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Advancing Chinese Modernization, emphasizing the need to actively develop technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, and to enhance high-quality financial services for major strategies, key areas, and vulnerable sectors. Effectively addressing the "Five Major Tasks" in finance serves as a crucial approach to building a strong financial power and is also a key pivot for Shanghai to develop into an international financial center. The Central Financial Commission, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government have successively issued the Opinions on Supporting the Accelerated Development of Shanghai as an International Financial Center and the Action Plan to Support Building Shanghai into an International Financial Center. Both documents have made significant arrangements and clarified objectives and tasks for effectively implementing the "Five Major Tasks" in finane.

    High-quality financial development cannot be achieved without a favorable legal environment, and financial innovation must operate within the framework of the rule of law. As the first specialized financial court in China, the Shanghai Financial Court shoulders the important responsibility of safeguarding the construction of a strong financial power. The Several Opinions represents pragmatic measures taken by the Shanghai Financial Court to fulfill its financial adjudication functions, proactively respond to the new development needs of the "Five Major Tasks" in finance, leverage the geographical advantages of Shanghai as an international financial center, and capitalize on the professional judicial advantages of centralized jurisdiction over financial cases, thereby enhancing systematic, targeted, and forward-looking services.

    The Several Opinions is divided into three main sections: general requirements, specific measures, and supporting safeguards, totaling 18 articles. The general requirements encompass four aspects: Firstly, upholding Party leadership and serving overall development. With greater effort and more practical measures, we will ensure that the "Five Major Tasks" in finance promote the coordinated development of Shanghai's "Five Centers," contributing judicial strength to achieving significant progress in the development of these themes by 2027. Secondly, practicing judicial for people and safeguarding people's well-being. We will firmly establish the principle of protecting financial consumers and small and medium-sized investors, adopt a "piercing the veil" approach to adjudication, and promote the mutual advancement of high-quality financial development and a high-quality life for the people. Thirdly, strengthening demand orientation and deepening reform and innovation. Focusing on new situations and needs, we will implement financial adjudication concepts for the new era, explore innovations in financial adjudication and enforcement mechanisms, and provide replicable and scalable experiences for financial judicial work nationwide. Fourthly, establishing a systematic perspective and ensuring comprehensive consideration. We will better grasp the relationships among the "Five Major Tasks" in finance, which are relatively independent yet closely interconnected and each with its own focus. We will strengthen positive interactions and complementary advantages between financial justice and regulation, facilitating a comprehensive transformation of development engines, modes, and elements.

    In terms of specific measures, the Several Opinions clearly outlines two parts, namely "adjudication concepts" and "safeguard mechanisms," for each of the five financial sectors: technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance. A total of 35 adjudication concepts and rules for new types of dispute cases involving the "Five Major Tasks" in finance are proposed, along with 21 specific and feasible financial judicial safeguard mechanisms, providing comprehensive judicial support for deepening financial reforms.

    Regarding supporting safeguards, the Several Opinions emphasizes the need to improve financial adjudication and enforcement mechanisms, focusing on supporting ad hoc arbitration, establishing specialized teams, and enhancing enforcement coordination, thereby creating a preferred destination for resolving international financial disputes. It also stresses the importance of fostering synergy in financial market governance, balancing the financial integrity and innovation with risk prevention through measures such as regularly publishing typical cases and legal risk prevention reports related to the "Five Major Tasks" in finance. Furthermore, it aims to build an international financial judicial center, offering more just, efficient, convenient, and predictable judicial services to support high-level two-way financial openness. Additionally, it underscores the need to strengthen the cultivation of financial adjudication talents, striving to create a hub for composite financial adjudication professionals.

The Several Opinions features three innovative highlights:

    Firstly, achieving new expansions in adjudication concepts. For the five key areas of financial reform, overall adjudication concepts are clarified and refined: Promoting the deep integration of capital, innovation, and industrial chains through high-quality adjudication to foster the development of new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions, ensuring high-level technological self-reliance and the construction of a technological powerhouse; firmly establishing and practicing the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," safeguarding green, low-carbon, and sustainable development, and advancing the Chinese path to modernization characterized by harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature; adhering to a people-centered development philosophy, ensuring that finance returns to its roots in the real economy, and promoting the standardization, accessibility, and satisfaction of financial services; strengthening financial services to better serve the aging population, safeguarding the implementation of the national strategy for actively responding to population aging, strengthening judicial protection of the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly, and facilitating the silver economy as a new engine for economic growth; assisting in the "data elements ¡Á financial services" pilot program, ensuring the lawful sharing and circulation of financial data, and promoting the compliant release of the value of data elements.

    Secondly, creating a new cluster of adjudication rules. Enhancing forward-looking research and judgment on potential disputes, the Several Opinions establishes adjudication rules to define legal boundaries for financial transactions, convey the judiciary's stance on market behavior, stabilize expectations among Chinese and foreign financial market participants, and effectively "address issues at the source to prevent problems before they arise."

    In disputes involving financing guarantees for science and technology innovation enterprises, the effectiveness of new types of collateral such as data property rights, future claims, and intellectual property rights is clarified, facilitating the resolution of difficulties and high costs associated with financing for these enterprises.

In green securities disputes, efforts shall be made to crack down on false statements concerning environmental information, standardize the development of green asset-backed securities products, strengthen judicial review of the authenticity of underlying assets, and curb unlawful practices such as "greenwashing" and similar deceptive conduct in the capital market. In inclusive finance disputes involving prepaid card consumption, we will promote the standardized development of prepaid expense trusts to safeguard consumers' card purchase and fund security. In disputes related to pension accounts, we will regulate unauthorized account openings in accordance with the law, clarify the rights and obligations of personal pension account holders, account-opening banks, and wealth management companies, and contribute to the construction of the third-pillar pension insurance system. In digital finance disputes, we will legally recognize the evidentiary effect of data (intellectual) property rights registration, expedite the exploration and clarification of adjudication rules regarding data asset rights determination, benefit distribution, and value assessment, etc. and facilitate the assetization and capitalization of data product operational rights.

    Thirdly, elevating the new level of judicial safeguards. The Several Opinions clearly states that the Shanghai Financial Court will innovate and optimize a series of judicial safeguard mechanisms in response to the new characteristics and demands of the development of the "Five Major Tasks" in finance. In the field of technology finance, we will focus on improving the specialized adjudication mechanism for cases on the Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market), strengthen coordination with mechanisms such as advance compensation, standardize the loss assessment procedures by third-party professional institutions, and promote a win-win situation where STAR Market-listed companies can operate with ease and investors can receive prompt compensation. In the field of green finance, we will collaborate with the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange to explore new models for enforcing carbon emission quotas, maximize the realization value of carbon trading products, and support the healthy development of the carbon market. In the field of inclusive finance, efforts will be made to facilitate the improvement of mechanisms for incentivizing trustworthiness and credit restoration, and to provide litigation-related information explanation services to eligible enterprises upon application. This approach aims to encourage micro and small enterprises to dare to borrow and be willing to borrow, while also enabling financial institutions to have the capability and know-how to lend. In the field of pension finance, we will strengthen collaboration with public security and procuratorial agencies to jointly combat financial fraud cases targeting the elderly and protect their legitimate rights and interests. In the field of digital finance, we will deepen the construction of a case testing mechanism for financial markets, conduct legal stress tests on major cutting-edge issues such as cross-border data transmission in reinsurance transactions, and enhance China's international voice in digital finance governance.

    Additionally, 10 typical cases have been released to fully leverage the guiding role of adjudication rules in the market and support good governance and the rule of law in the frontier areas of financial reform and innovation. The cases exhibit the following characteristics: Firstly, they concentrate on reflecting the development bottlenecks and potential risk issues related to the "Five Major Tasks" in finance. For instance, in the field of technology finance, there exist financing dilemmas in the venture capital market, such as the fact that the parties obligated for Valuation Adjustment Mechanism (VAM) Repurchase are often founding shareholders, the terms of these agreements are relatively stringent, and repurchase conditions are easily triggered. Compared with the demands of technological innovation, there are still bottlenecks in financial supply. Another example is in the realm of inclusive finance, where the rapid development of the platform economy has given rise to novel legal issues, such as those involving internet insurance and employer liability insurance purchased through platforms. The protection of financial consumers' rights and interests faces challenges from the transformation of financial technology, necessitating continuous enhancement of the capabilities and standards of financial institutions in terms of compliant operations and diligent performance of duties. Secondly, they profoundly embody the adjudication concepts for cases in the five major fields as specified in the Several Opinions. Cases serve as important carriers of adjudication rules, and the typical cases released this time provide concrete interpretations of the relevant adjudication concepts and rules proposed in the Several Opinions. For example, the typical cases in the field of inclusive finance guide financial institutions to fully disclose and explain "abnormal clauses" in standard form contracts that have significant implications for the other party, regulate behaviors such as concealing the actual interest rate in effect, and promote the improvement of the standardization, accessibility, and satisfaction of financial services. Another illustration is that two typical cases in digital finance accurately define the legal status, rights, obligations, and responsibility boundaries of various participants in the electronic payment industry, safeguarding and promoting the digital transformation of the payment sector. Thirdly, they effectively demonstrate the organic unity of political, legal, and social effects. The development of the "Five Major Tasks" in finance for the finance exhibits strong policy orientation, and this batch of typical cases places greater emphasis on the unity of the "three effects." For instance, in a typical case concerning science and technology innovation finance, a commitment to standardized and civilized enforcement was upheld. Through measures such as "flexible seizure and restraint" and "execution settlement," the impact on the normal operations of science and technology innovation enterprises was minimized to the greatest extent possible. Another example is a typical case in green finance, where an innovative model of "cross-regional collaboration + exemplary mediation" in the Yangtze River Delta was employed to enhance efforts in resolving disputes at their source and achieving substantive resolution, thereby bringing cases to a satisfactory conclusion while promoting harmonious governance.

    "The Shanghai Financial Court will continue to promote the implementation of the Several Opinions, expedite the refinement of relevant supporting measures, and effectively carry out judicial safeguard work for the 'Five Major Tasks' in finance. It will provide higher-quality judicial services for the high-level opening-up and reform of the financial sector and offer more robust judicial support for the construction of a financial powerhouse and Shanghai as an international financial center," stated by Zhao Hong.

Nearly 20 journalists from media outlets including Guangming Daily, Legal Daily, CCTV, and Jiefang Daily attended the press conference.