Welcome Note

Opening Remarks by Chinese official (to be confirmed)

Invited International Speaker: Mark Boleat, Policy Chairman, City of London

Opening Dialogue

The Third Plenary Session of 18th CPC Central Committee, which took place in November 2013, signalled China’s commitment to further reforms and opening up of its economy. New policies will continue to be implemented over the next few years. Where are we now? How far are we from the goals of interest rate liberalisation, renminbi capital account convertibility and the development of renminbi as a global reserve currency? What are the distractions from ongoing economic and financial reforms?

• What is expected to happen after lifting a 14-month IPO freeze?
• Reasons for fast-growing technology companies raising funds overseas
• An explosion of current regulatory requirements in the listing process
• The creation of a new board  with Nasdaq-style rules on the Shanghai Stock Exchange
• Avoiding undue competition  in domestic markets, lessons from the US market
• Risk management and transparency

Although the first commodity futures contract in China was traded in early 1991, the development of other asset classes including equity futures and options products has lagged markedly. Commodities have been the mainstay of China's derivative markets so far but the launch of equity options on two of the country's main exchanges could see this dominance challenged.

• New transactional rules can be brought by the launch of equity options
• Expecting a new hedging and risk management landscape
• Its impact on China's derivatives market and investors’ portfolios

• Current initiatives, breakthroughs and changes in legislation
• The implementation of key policies: What are the problems and pitfalls?
• Opportunities and challenges for international lenders and borrowers in accessing the on-shore China market (case study)
• The extent of financial market innovations expected
• Long-term effect on Hong Kong as China’s premier financial hub
• Other upcoming FTZs

There is an increasing trend to have selected derivative commodities priced and benchmarked in the region. Our expert panel will investigate how Chinese exchanges can successfully manage this process by:

• Examining the operating conditions and market infrastructure required for price setting of key commodities
• Identifying opportunities for new spot and derivative commodity products on Chinese exchanges for purposes of price referencing and risk hedging
• Discussing how to attract and maintain liquidity and volume growth
• Addressing the importance of controlling commodity supply in benchmarking efforts
• Exploring possibilities for joint collaboration with regional exchanges in price setting 

• Are we over reliant on traditional forms of collateral such as US Treasuries and the USD?  What are the risks?
• Should China start looking inward to find appropriate assets as collateral?
• The case for using gold as collateral
• The risks of a collateral liquidity crunch in China as OTC markets develop. How much in assets does China have and is it being put to effective use?