Photo:VCG
 

Financial cooperation across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) will deepen this year, as deputies of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) suggested exploring a futures exchange and free cross-border capital flows within the area. 

NPC deputies from Shenzhen in Guangdong Province suggested building a futures exchange with Hong Kong and Macao. In plan published on May 14, the People's Bank of China and other regulatory bodies released measures to boost innovation in the GBA's financial sector and mitigate cross-border financial risks. 

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) on Saturday formed a special group and drew up an annual plan to support insurance institutes in the GBA to develop innovative insurance products, and to allow qualified banks and insurance institutes from Hong Kong and Macao to set up operating agencies within the GBA. 

China has plans to recover its economy by researching innovative measures in the finance sector in the post-coronavirus era, such as financial openness and capital account convertibility, and the GBA can provide a platform to trial these initiatives, He Fei, a senior research fellow with the Bank of Communications, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"The hotly-anticipated improvements at the GBA this year would be consumers' demand for financial services, notably the cross-border finance link, cross-border insurance link and cross-border mobile payment services," He said. 

"The insurance interconnection policy in the GBA is an opportunity for Hong Kong's insurance industry, as well as a method to break through the industry's bottleneck," Lily Wu Xi, chief wealth management advisor at the Hong Kong-based Convoy Global Holdings Limited, told the Global Times. 

For example, some clients can only receive payouts for medical compensation in their Hong Kong bank accounts instead of accounts in the Chinese mainland after buying insurance in Hong Kong, but if this limitation is lifted within the GBA, it would be a huge driver for the medical insurance industry, Wu said. 

Sio Chi Wai, a deputy to the 13th NPC and president of the Macau Development Strategy Research Center, told the Global Times on Sunday that he proposed to realize the cross-border capital flows freely and establish a "single pass" financial management system in the Macao-Hengqin cooperation zone.

Compared with the other two financial hubs in Asia, Macao with the strong backing of the mainland would have a broader market and more abundant resources. It also boasts more flexibility than the traditional financial hub of Hong Kong, he noted. 

"Macao is building a cross-border yuan settlement center and bond trading market and researching the possibility of setting up a stock exchange and futures exchange. It is possible for Macao to become China's second offshore financial center following Hong Kong," Sio said.

A report by KPMG China, HSBC and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce noted that the GBA will increasingly act as a "springboard" for mainland companies to expand overseas, including into the countries and regions involved in China's Belt and Road Initiative.