X IANGMIHU Financial Technology Index, the first index to reflect the development of fintech industry in China, made a debut on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on June 9.

The index, jointly developed by Invest Shenzhen Futian and Shenzhen Securities Information Co., aims to reflect the overall performance of fintech companies listed on the Shenzhen market, and to provide more performance benchmarks and investment opportunities to the market. The index takes 26 May 2017 as its base day, and 3000 as its base point.

Supportive measures for the development of the fintech industry were announced on the same day. An expert advisory committee formed by 30 experts from both home and abroad was established to accelerate the construction of a healthy fintech ecosystem and provide a driving force for the development of a fintech center.

“Futian will roll out a series of measures to support the development of the fintech industry including planning an industry cluster, establishing a special fintech guidance fund, launching a ‘young talent training program’ and industry innovation awards, issuing the Xiangmihu Financial Technology Index and related index funds” said He Jie, vice head of Futian District.

He explained that the reason for them using “Xiangmihu” instead of “Shenzhen” or “Futian” was because they didn’t want to restrict the development of an index to an administration or territory.

He added that the special policies issued in March this year by the Futian government to accelerate the rapid, healthy and innovative development of fintech industry, were not limited to the enterprises and projects in Futian, but were directed at all enterprises and industrial chain elements in the industry.

The financial technology index covers distribution technologies (including block chain and cloud computing), Internet technology (electronic and network payment), financial security and Internet finance.

According to statistics, there are currently 71 fintech companies that are listed in the A-share market, 59 of which are listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) with a total market value of more than 660 billion yuan (US$97.15 billion).

With fintech enterprises listed on the SZSE as a sample, all of the stocks that fit into the shortlisted standard were selected as sample stocks for the Xiangmihu Financial Technology Index. There are 56 sample stocks on the first tranche of sample stocks. The sample stocks will be adjusted regularly on the first trading day of January and July every year.

According to official figures recently issued by Futian’s bureau of statistics, the financial industry was the driving force of the district’s strong economic growth, growing 17 percent from a year earlier and contributing the lion’s share — 34.03 billion yuan, or accounting for 38.5 percent of Futian’s total economy.

Official figures show that about 67 percent of licensed financial institutions in Shenzhen have their headquarters located in Futian. Financial institutions ranging from banks, brokerages and insurance companies such as the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Ping An Insurance and China Merchants Bank, are all based in Futian. (Chen Xiaochun)