I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 651 Lujiazui Summit Forum

On May 27, the 2015 Lujiazui Forum was held at the Pudong Shangri-La Hotel.

The meeting was attended by approximately 600 people, mainly including senior financial regulators from China and abroad, representatives from financial and investment institutions, and scholars. The heads of the "one bank and three commissions" regulatory bodies all participated.

Fang Qingye was also dressed in a suit and tie today, looking very energetic.

According to the agenda, registration and check-in will take place this afternoon, followed by a grand welcome reception tonight for attendees to exchange ideas.

It was like a large cocktail party, where people chatted, ate, and drank casually, with waiters in cheongsams occasionally moving around.

Fang Qingye ate a cake to fill her stomach, and then held a cocktail in her hand. Although she couldn't hold her liquor, she still had to pretend.

In such settings, the meal is secondary; the main purpose is for guests to network and exchange ideas. The attendees are either high-ranking officials, leaders of major financial institutions, or renowned experts and scholars, making it an excellent opportunity to expand one's network.

Fang Qingye didn't know many people.

Although he is the president of a bank, Jinghai Bank is a small bank after all, and he rarely communicates with these banking bigwigs. He is not as familiar with the internet bigwigs as he is with them. However, none of them came today.

Fang Qingye was familiar with Governor Pan of the People's Bank of China and Chairman Cao of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, but both of them were surrounded by a large group of people, so there was no need for him to go and join in the fun.

At that moment, a man walked over with a wine glass in his hand and greeted him.

"Hello, President Fang."

"Hello."

Fang Qingye looked at the middle-aged man; to be honest, he didn't recognize him.

"I am Jing Xiandong, the president of Ant Financial," the middle-aged man introduced himself.

"Hello, Mr. Jing." Fang Qingye responded warmly: "I've looked at the meeting agenda. Mr. Jing, you will be giving a speech at the forum the day after tomorrow morning. Ant Financial will also be giving a live demonstration. I'll be listening and watching carefully."

"President Fang, you also need to say something."

"My remarks were too narrow in scope and cannot compare to what you, President Jing, have said humbly."

"But the theme is the same: technology-driven inclusive finance," Jing Xiandong said.

This is true.
"President Fang, Mr. Ma asked me to pass on his greetings to you." The two clinked glasses as they spoke.

"Thank you. It's such a pity that Mr. Ma couldn't attend the meeting," Fang Qingye said.

“Since stepping down as CEO of Alibaba, Mr. Ma is now free of official duties and lives a carefree life,” Jing Xiandong explained, then added, “Mr. Ma invites you to a private tea party hosted by Taiji Zen Garden on May 31st.”

"Don't worry, I will definitely go."

"That's good. I'll go chat with a friend over there." Jing Xiandong said, clinking glasses with Fang Qingye again before politely taking his leave.

The conversation between the two lasted no more than two minutes.

It wasn't Jing Xiandong's original intention to chat with Fang Qingye; it was just that Ma Yun had instructed him to come and say hello and exchange a few pleasantries.

He really couldn't understand why Mr. Ma would take a liking to this young man.

It's just that Ele.me forcibly swallowed Meituan, right? Ele.me's valuation is at most 2000 billion now, which is not even comparable to Alibaba, let alone Ant Financial, which was established not long ago!
Ant Financial is about to conduct its first round of financing, with several heavyweight state-owned capital investors including the National Social Security Fund, China Development Bank Financial Leasing, China Life Insurance, and China Post Capital!
The company raised 120 billion RMB, but Ant Financial only gave up 5% of its shares! The valuation agency gave it a valuation of 500 billion USD.

As for Jinghai Bank, it can be disregarded.

However, I heard from Mr. Ma that Fang Qingye is working on some kind of enterprise distributed ledger platform, which is quite interesting. He even poached two algorithm engineers from Ant Financial. I wonder if he has the ability to make it successful.

After Jing Xiandong left, Fang Qingye saw Director Luo walking over with a wine glass in his hand, so she greeted him with a smile, and the two clinked glasses and stood together chatting.

"President Fang, do you know Mr. Jing from Ant Financial?" Director Luo asked, looking at Jing Xiandong, who was chatting with someone not far away.

"I didn't really know him. I only found out when he introduced himself," Fang Qingye replied.

"Oh, President Fang, I see that the speaking materials you provided to the organizing committee are not about the ecosystem construction of distributed ledger systems?" Director Luo changed the subject.

"Yes, I think this is still under development and there are no results yet, so I switched to agricultural microloans. After all, for us small and medium-sized banks, this is one of our key businesses, and of course, it is also a difficult one. We need to see how to solve this problem from a technical perspective."

"So you're cooperating with Alibaba's Taobao?" Director Luo asked again.

"Yes, Taobao and Tmall have an absolute advantage in terms of user data."

“Yes, if you add Ant Financial to that, Alibaba’s user data and information resources are unmatched by any bank in China,” Director Luo said, glancing at Jing Xiandong not far away.

Fang Qingye sensed a hidden meaning in Director Luo's words, but he didn't respond and simply listened quietly.

"President Fang, I heard that you've been in frequent contact with Jack Ma of Alibaba lately?" Director Luo suddenly asked again.

"Yes, we have some business connections, and also, Mr. Ma likes drinking tea and fishing, which happens to be what I do too," Fang Qingye said frankly.

“A good habit is better than smoking.” Director Luo laughed. “Someone like me, with a heavy smoking habit, needs a cigarette as soon as I open my eyes every day. I can’t concentrate without one. I always find an excuse to sneak out for a couple of puffs during meetings. I have to go out now, I can’t hold it in any longer, sorry.”

After saying that, he smiled at Fang Qingye, placed the wine glass on the table, and left in a hurry.

Fang Qingye smiled gently.

He glanced at Jing Xiandong, who was still chatting animatedly with his friends, and thought about what Director Luo had just said.

It seems that regulators are already wary of Ant Financial and even Alibaba.
According to the conference agenda, the forum's opening ceremony was held on the morning of the second day. Shanghai city leaders announced the opening of the forum and introduced the theme "Financial Reform and Opening Up under the New Normal".

In his address, the mayor emphasized the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center and mentioned the financial innovation pilot program in the free trade zone. The governor of the People's Bank of China set the tone for financial reform, focusing on the internationalization of the RMB and the opening of the capital account, signaling a "tolerant and prudent" approach from regulators towards internet finance.

The opening ceremony featured a highlight: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde spoke via video link for the first time, warning of global financial risks and calling on China to balance reform and stability.

The forum released the "Shanghai Financial Prosperity Index," which shows that the growth rate of Shanghai's financial industry reached 15% (higher than the GDP growth rate).

The afternoon session included two sub-forums: RMB internationalization and the launch of the CIPS system for cross-border investment and financing, and capital account convertibility and financial innovation and regulatory coordination.

Fang Qingye was focused on the content of the sub-forum the following morning: the development and regulation of internet finance, and he also spoke at this forum.

The forum was held in the Pearl Hall on the 7th floor of the Shanghai International Convention Center. Fang Qingye arrived at the Pearl Hall early, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the huge ant-shaped installation in the central exhibition area. Ant Financial’s booth occupied the most prominent position and was three times the size of the other organizations’ booths.

So cool?

(End of this chapter)