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On September 7, 2017, Mr. Wu Qing, Chairman of the Shanghai Stock Exchange was elected Chairman of the World Federation of Exchanges on the 57th WFE General Assembly & Annual Meeting. This is the first time that a Chinese mainland exchange holds a leading position in international industry associations.
Established in 1961, WFE is among the most important industry associations in international capital markets and plays a key role in international financial governance. At present, WFE has 67 full members, encompassing most of the major exchanges globally and 6 exchanges in mainland China. Among members of the WFE are the major stock, bond and derivatives markets in the world. Together, WFE exchange members are home to more than 45 thousand listed companies with a total capitalization of USD 78 trillion. The Shanghai Stock Exchange joined WFE in 2002 as a full member, making it the first exchange in mainland China among the WFE members. Since then, the SSE has played an active part in multiple events held by the WFE. It has served five terms as Board of Directos in succession since 2006, and hosted the 2007 WFE General Assembly & Annual Meeting and 2016 WFE Annual Meeting.
In his speech, Mr. Wu pointed out that although Shanghai Stock Exchange has a fairly short history, it has grown into one of the major securities markets globally after 27 years of rapid development. During the process, the SSE benefits greatly from the key platform provided by the WFE for international cooperation and communication, and the experience shared by the fellow member exchanges. Mr. Wu said, “I am extremely honored to be elected WFE Chairman and continue to serve the WFE members. The Shanghai Stock Exchange expects that not only developed markets would share their experience, best practices and expertise with emerging markets, and all WFE members can forge ahead towards shared growth with experience and knowledge sharing.”
According to WFE Articles of Association, the Board of Directors is the decision-making body of the Federation. The 18 members of the Board of Directors are divided into Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA regions given the geological location of the exchanges they represent. According to relevant WFE regulations, the WFE is to be chaired by one from the Asia region for the current term. WFE Chairman represents the industry of exchanges globally, and is responsible for guiding the work of WFE Chief Executive Officer, formulating the WFE development plan and work plan, chairing the general assembly and annual meeting, and engaging in discussions over the global capital market governance as the representative of the exchange industry.
During the four-day WFE Annual Meeting, the SSE and the other members discussed the important role of exchanges in supporting economic growth, shared experience on opening markets, studied how to seize opportunities from the FinTech reform, how to deal with risks and how to improve market liquidity, and also explored the prospect of the exchange industry. Notably, in order to implement the concept of sustainable development in the capital market, Mr. Wu announced on the Annual Meeting that the SSE joined the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative (the SSE Initiative) as a Partner Exchange. The SSE Initiative of the UN is dedicated to sustainable development in world stock exchanges and the SSE is the first Chinese Partner Exchange in the initiative.
Mr. Wu put forward the following suggestions on the Opening Ceremony of 2017 WFE General Assembly & Annual Meeting:
“WFE members should share experience, promote green investment products, develop green finance, push forward green development and realize sustainable development of the capital market and the world economy. The WFE would encourage members to share experience on how to keep the market in order and stability and how to strengthen front-line regulation, so as to build a favorable environment for effective international capital market regulation and systemic risk prevention. We should innovate business models and make the market more efficient and transparent. We should bring forward win-win cooperation and promote inter-exchange communication and cooperation. We should explore and make use of the latest FinTech technologies.”
The Shanghai Stock Exchange has attached great importance to the securities market opening up and international cooperation since its earliest days. In recent years, the SSE has been playing an increasingly active role in furthering two-way opening up as a key player of global capital markets. The successful election of Mr. Wu Qing, Chairman of the SSE as WFE Chairman will provide an important channel to display the success of the reform and opening up of China’s capital market and the exchange industry, and reflect the aspiration of China’s exchanges to shoulder their responsibility in the global exchange industry and engage in the global governance of the industry. Thus, the China’s capital market will have an even greater say in global capital markets. The SSE will seize the opportunity and continue to serve as the vanguard of capital market opening up in collaboration with the other exchanges in mainland China so as to further enhance the international presence of China’s exchanges and better serve the overall interests including the construction of the Belt and Road and opening up.
