Shou Xiaoli:

Thank you. Now, let's give the floor to Mr. Xiao for his introduction.

Xiao Yuanqi:

Friends from the press, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, we have made impressive achievements in the financial sector and achieved new leapfrog growth in the banking and insurance industries.

A virtuous circle of the real economy and the financial system has taken shape. Over the past decade, the average annual growth of bank loans and bond investments were 13.1% and 14.7%, respectively, roughly matching the growth of nominal GDP. Interbank financial products and trust products were substantially reduced compared with the historical peak, and the trend of financing activities straying from the real economy was reversed. The insurance depth rose from 2.98% to 3.93%, and the insurance density increased from 1,144 yuan per capita to 3,179 yuan per capita. The serious disease insurance system has covered 1.22 billion residents in urban and rural areas since its establishment in 2012, and long-term care insurance now covers nearly 150 million people. The risk protection provided by agricultural insurance for agricultural households increased from 0.9 trillion yuan in 2012 to 4.4 trillion yuan in 2021, providing critical funding support for post-disaster reconstruction. The annual average growth of inclusive loans for small and micro enterprises was 25.5%, and that of loans for supporting agricultural production, development of rural areas, and agricultural population was 14.9%, both much higher than the average loan growth. In addition, per capita bank accounts stands at about 9.5, and a significant increase has been seen in both the coverage and accessibility of inclusive finance.

Important achievements have been made in forestalling and defusing major financial risks. Departments of financial supervision and regulation resolutely took actions to prevent and resolve financial risks, with the blind expansion of financial assets fundamentally reversed. High-risk shadow banking has been reduced by about 25 trillion yuan compared with the historical peak, while a total of 16 trillion yuan of non-performing assets have been disposed of in the past decade. Many prominent risks were defused, and illegal activities and corruption in the financial sector were severely punished.

Reform and opening up in the banking and insurance sectors have taken on a new look. Continuous efforts have been made to improve the corporate governance of financial institutions and the reform of small and medium-sized banks and rural credit cooperatives has been deepened. Major progress has been made in the pilot reform of the third-pillar pension system, with the exclusive commercial endowment insurance piloted nationwide and the pilot scope of pension wealth product expanded to ten institutions in ten places. By the end of May, more than 60 billion yuan in pension wealth products had been subscribed. Over the past ten years, we have adopted more than 50 policies to expand opening-up in the banking and insurance sectors. In 2021, the total capital and assets of foreign banks in the Chinese market both increased by more than 50% in comparison with ten years ago, and those of foreign insurance companies in China have grown 2.3 times and seven times, respectively, over the past ten years. Many professional banking and insurance institutions, such as foreign wealth management companies and foreign assets management companies, have been actively participating in the development of China's financial market.

An environment of strict supervision and regulation has been fostered. We have formulated and revised more than 70 laws and regulations. Substantial results have been made in legal construction of financial sector. Marked improvement has been seen in our capacity for supervision and regulation in accordance with the law. So far, the identities of a total of 124 stockholders who breached laws or regulations have been disclosed to the public. Through various ways, we severely punished the activities violating laws or regulations committed by banking and insurance institutions and persons responsible, so as to address the prevention of financial risks and crack down on financial corruption through a systemic approach.

Under the guidance of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the CBIRC will uphold and strengthen the Party's overall leadership over finance. We will safeguard the establishment of both Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and boost our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership. We will stay confident in the path, the theory, the system, and the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We will firmly uphold Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. We will steadfastly follow the path of financial supervision and regulation with Chinese characteristics and embrace the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the CPC with concrete measures. Thank you.

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