An aerial view of Shanghai File photo: VCG

Shanghai Municipality is striving to establish itself as an international financial center and global asset management center, aiming to promote the high-quality development of the financial industry on a broader scope, across more areas and in greater depth, a senior local official said on Sunday.

Shanghai has a complete financial market system and transactions are active. 

In the first three quarters, the total trading volume of Shanghai's financial markets reached 2,633 trillion yuan ($369.75 trillion), up 3.4 percent year-on-year. There are more than 1,770 financial institutions based in Shanghai, of which more than one-third are foreign financial institutions, Shanghai Vice Mayor Xie Dong said at the Global Asset Management Forum in Shanghai.

By benchmarking world-class international financial centers, Shanghai will pilot new institutions, explore new roads and test pressure for deepening reform and opening-up in the financial sector to promote its high-quality development, Xie said.

In recent years, Shanghai, serving as a hub and gateway of China's financial opening-up, has actively piloted new systems and explored new paths for the nation, and shored up weak links, Zhu Hexin, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said at the 15th Lujiazui Forum in June.

The city has pioneered a number of reforms and opening-up measures in the financial and foreign exchange sectors, significantly enhancing its competitiveness and influence as an international financial center, Zhu said.

In August, Shanghai passed revised regulations on promoting the further development of this area as an international financial center, with the revised regulations taking effect on October 1.

"Thanks to Shanghai's financial opening-up, DBS has made multiple achievements in the industry," Ginger Cheng, CEO of DBS China, told the Global Times.

DBS is the first foreign bank that established a branch in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the first foreign bank that underwrote Chinese local government bond issuance, according to Cheng. The bank is now the only foreign bank that offers custody services for foreign clients trading on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, accounting for a market share of 20-25 percent, she said.

"Today, we continue to consider China an important market for our growth, and we're confident in China's development potential," she said, noting that DBS will look to increase its stake in its China joint venture - DBS Securities China - from 51 percent to 91 percent, pending regulatory approval.

Along with the improvement of China's financial regulations and the capability to prevent risks, Shanghai should continue to expand the channels for cross-border capital flows in a bid to give better play to its role as a bridge linking China with the rest of the world, Xi Junyang, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Sunday.

As one of the pioneers leading advancements in areas including artificial intelligence and big data, Shanghai should also further empower the steady development of the financial industry with new technologies, the Chinese expert said.