Investor protection is a long-term systematic task for the capital market. In the new era, effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of investors, especially small and medium-sized investors, is an important aspect in implementing the development phylosophy of "adhering to the people-centered approach" put forward at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. For a long time, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has endeavored to step up the promotion of investor education and guide the investors in establishing a rational investment methodology. Recently, seizing the opportunity of the March 15 “International Consumer Rights Day”, the SSE joined hands with its members in organizing a series of activities of “Investor Protection Promotion Month”, with the aim of effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of investors.
Under the guidance of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), , the SSE organized diverse activities in various forms during the “Investor Protection Promotion Month” in order to call on the investors to correctly understand the reform of the sci-tech innovation board and participate in trading on the board in a rational manner, in an effort to guide expectations and inculcate investors trading on the sci-tech innovation board with the idea of rational investment.
Giving play to the role of members as exemplars to fuel the overall reform of the capital market.
The SSE organized a series of activities for investor education and protection in 2018 to continuously raise the members’ awareness of their major responsibility for investor education and speed up the establishment of a capital market in which investors’ rights and interests are effectively protected. A total of more than 1,000 investor education works in various forms were received from 91 members, among which a number of works featuring profound contents and innovative forms stand out. In order to commend the examplars, enhance exchanges and sum up experience, the SSE recently held a conference at the SSE trading hall to award prizes to the outstanding works of investor education and protection created by members in 2018. Attending the conference were Zeng Changhong, inspector of the Investor Protection Bureau of the CSRC, Jiang Feng, SSE President, Zhang Jihua, Secretary General of Securities Association of China (SAC), and Huang Yong, Party Committee Member and Vice President of China Securities Investor Services Center (ISC). Also present at the event were officials from Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau of CSRC and the representatives of 50 award-winning members and the investors.
Jiang expressed heartfelt congratulations to the winners in his welcome speech at the conference and extended sincere gratitude to the CSRC and relevant departments, members and investors for their long-standing guidance, support and assistance to the SSE’s efforts in investor education.
Jiang pointed out that the SSE will take the sci-tech innovation board as the “pivot” of the reform, the "test field" of the innovation, and the "main front" of the development, vigorously enhance the ability to serve the sci-tech innovation enterprises, and strive to improve investors’ returns, so as to make the investors better share the gains made by the innovative enterprises. At the same time, Jiang put forward two requirements for the award-winning members: first, raising political awareness, better fulfilling their responsibilities and giving full play to their role as the “gatekeeper” for the capital market; second, improving the mechanism, building teams of talents, and developing a highly disciplined "iron army" with professional competence for investor education in the new era.
Delivering a special speech at the conference, Zeng stressed that the Party Committee of the CSRC attaches great importance to investor education protection, and at a press conference of the State Council Information Office, CSRC chairman Yi Huiman also clearly pointed out that "strengthening regulation and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of investors is the bounden duty of the CSRC". In recent years, the CSRC has made efforts in investor education, facilitated the integration of investor education into the national education system, built more than 100 investor education bases at the national and provincial levels, and organized special activities of investor education such as “rational investment starts from me” and “understanding rules and identifying risks”. This year, based on the progress made in the sci-tech innovation board, the CSRC will work with the SSE to continue to carry out the special investor education activity titled “Let’s Embrace Sci-tech Innovation Board” and make effective efforts in investor education and protection for the board. Fully acknowledging the achievements made by the members in investor education and protection, Zeng expected that all market participants could make joint efforts in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of investors and building a standardized, transparent, open, dynamic and resilient capital market.
Integrating high-quality resources in the industry to form a joint effort in investor education and protection.
Securities companies play an irreplaceable role in investor education as a pioneer in this field. In order to further enhance the influence and coverage of the investor education works, and guide investors in establishing a rational investment concept, during the “Investor Protection Promotion Month”, the SSE displayed its original works and the members’ outstanding works on investor education in an all-round and three-dimensional manner on the official website and the WeChat account of Shanghai Securities News, and the SSE Investor Education platform (Baichuan Zhongxue), so as to integrate resources, build platforms, and help the investors gain financial investment knowledge and raise the awareness of investment risks.
In order to give full play to the significant role of the “New Forces of Investor Education”, the SSE organized the 2018 winners of top 100 “New Forces of Investor Education” to participate in the investor education activity -- “Top 100 New Forces, 100 Events”, so as to create a flourishing atmosphere and highlight the influence and appeal of the “New Forces of Investor Education” as the models in the industry during the promotion month through nearly 100 investor education events featuring rich contents and various forms.
Focusing on the overall reform of the capital market, soliciting the investors' opinions, and responding to the investors’ concerns.
The promotion month coincided with the SSE soliciting opinions on the rules for the Sci-tech Innovation Board from the whole society. In order to listen to the voices of the investors and respond to the investors’ concerns, the officials of the SSE and the representatives of enthusiastic investors had face-to-face talks on supporting rules for launching the Sci-tech Innovation Board and piloting the registration-based IPO system in the China Securities Museum, so as to thoroughly solicit the opinions and suggestions of individual investors, address the investors’ concerns, discuss the major issues in the capital market, and jointly build a rational investment atmosphere.
Improving services for investors and creating a rational investment culture.
During the “Investor Protection Promotion Month”, the SSE joined hands with the China Securities Investor Services Center, local securities regulatory bureaus of the CSRC, The Securities Association of China, the China Association for Public Companies, Securities Companies and the news media, to carry out the investor education and protection activities titled “sending investor education services to households” in Hangzhou, Changchun, Xi'an and Chengdu. Through the theme lectures on investor service and protection, “I’m a Shareholder” visits of small and medium-sized investors to listed companies, the meetings on sharing experience of “New Forces of Investor Education” and other activities, continuous efforts have been made to improve the investor relations management, optimize the services for investors, and cultivate the culture of rational investment.
Continuously improving investor relations management and expanding and deepening protection for investors.
The effective management of investor relations is an important part of the listed companies’ efforts in achieving standardized operation and sustainable development as public companies, which is also a significant part in protecting the investors’ rights and interests. During the promotion month, in order to advance the standardization of investor relations management and explore ways and means to improve the protection of small and medium-sized investors’ rights and interests, the SSE produced a special dialogue and talk show, which will be broadcasted in the near future, in a bid to facilitate the formation of a virtuous atmosphere of communication and interaction between investors and listed companies.
As a sustained, systematic and specialized project, the work in investor education and protection of rights and interests requires the concerted efforts made by all market participants, so as to achieve complementary advantages. During the promotion month, in order to further enhance the pertinence and effectiveness of the work in investor education and deepen and expand the efforts, the SSE invited experts in the industry to conduct research and discussions by focusing on the key and tough issues in protection of investors’ rights and interests and investor education at present. In addition, a newspaper column will be opened to publish and promote the research results in the future, so as to jointly consolidate the "protection network" for investors’ rights and interests, and build a favorable market atmosphere and a rational investment environment.
In 2019, under the strong leadership of the CSRC, the SSE will focus on the overall reform of the capital market, make concerted and concentrated efforts, continuously advance the work in investor education and protection, consolidate the research foundation, highlight the outstanding works in investor education, build bridges for services, and cultivate brand activities, so as to jointly develop the culture of rational investment.
