China’s First Financial Court to be established in Shanghai

From April 25th to 27th, the Second Session of the 13th National People’s Congress Standing Committee was held in Beijing. The meeting passed a resolution on the establishment of the Shanghai Financial Court, which will be the first special court dealing with financial disputes in China.

Why was the first financial court established in Shanghai?

The main reason may be found in the contradiction between the large number of cases, wide range of involvement, strong professionalism and the lack of professionals in the field, which is becoming higher and higher in Shanghai. We can observe that during the past five years, Shanghai has concluded 478,000 financial cases of first instance and the year-on-year increase has been 358.3%. However, at present there are only 200 plus judicial officers working on financial and commercial cases in Shanghai with the average number of cases being handled by a single judge surpassing more than 300 per year.

Which cases does the first financial court have jurisdiction over?

According to the Decision on Establishing the Shanghai Financial Court (Draft), the Shanghai Financial Court has jurisdiction over financial and commercial cases and administrative cases involving financial transactions that should be under the jurisdiction of the Shanghai Intermediate People’s Court. The scope of jurisdiction is determined by the Supreme People’s Court, including the following four categories:

1. First-instance, second-instance and retrial financial and commercial cases involving financial borrowings, bills, letters of credit, securities, futures, insurance, financial leasing, pawn, and financial arbitration under the jurisdiction of all of the Intermediate People’s Courts of Shanghai;
2. The first instance, second instance and retrial of administrative cases involving financial transactions with the financial regulator as the defendant under the jurisdiction of all of the Intermediate People’s Courts of Shanghai;
3. New, significant, difficult and complicated financial and commercial cases and administrative cases involving financial transactions of first instance in the Shanghai jurisdiction ;
4. Civil and administrative cases in the first instance taking the Shanghai Stock Exchange, China Securities Depository and Clearing Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch, Shanghai Futures Exchange, etc. as the defendants or arising from the performance of the duties by third parties under the jurisdiction of the Intermediate People’s Court of Shanghai, designated by the relevant judicial interpretations of the Supreme People’s Court.

 

What is the significance of establishing a special financial court?

The establishment of a financial court can achieve centralized jurisdiction over financial cases, improve the organization system of the court, further improve the professional level of financial trials and strengthen financial judicial guarantees.

Can the Shanghai Financial Court handle cross-region financial and commercial cases and administrative cases involving financial transactions? Will financial criminal cases be accepted into the scope of the financial court’s jurisdiction? Let’s continue to pay attention to the development of the financial court together with the D&P Group. For more information about the first financial court, please contact us at info@dandreapartners.com.