Shanghai Court Releases New Judicial Guidelines for Financial Market Development

Shanghai High People's Court on Wednesday issued a comprehensive policy framework outlining judicial measures to accelerate the city's development as an international financial center.

Titled "Opinions on Providing Judicial Services and Safeguards for Accelerating the Development of Shanghai as an International Financial Center," marks the first time local authorities have rolled out tailored legal guidelines to address the financial sector's evolving needs in a new phase of growth.

It features 30 articles and 22 specific initiatives spanning five core areas: supporting the real economy, advancing high-level opening-up, strengthening market infrastructure, mitigating financial risks, and refining dispute resolution mechanisms.

A central focus lies on five priority areas of financial development, namely technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, with targeted judicial support designed to unlock new momentum in how finance serves the real economy.

In the area of technology finance, for example, the guidelines support financial institutions in developing innovative credit evaluation standards based on a technology company's patent quality, strength of its research and development teams, and scale of data assets. The move aims to help address financing difficulties faced by technology firms that are asset-light and lack traditional collateral.

The document calls for better rules for evidence in digital finance disputes over online transactions. It also talks about how to make it easier to keep, collect, and present electronic data by creating specific standards for its authentication and review.

The guidelines also draw on international best practices, using judicial safeguards to enhance legal certainty and predictability for cross-border financial innovation.

For example, the guidelines clarify judicial standards on exchanges' supervisory responsibilities over delivery warehouse receipts, supporting the Shanghai Futures Exchange's goal of becoming a world-class exchange.

They also call for expanding the Shanghai Financial Court's case testing mechanism to include more internationally relevant financial legal issues and a wider range of participating financial institutions.