"Huarui FinTech Salon" (No. 1), jointly hosted by Shanghai Huarui Bank, International Monetary Institute (IMI), Renmin University of China(RUC) and RUC FinTech Institute, was held on 11 June afternoon online. The theme of the salon was "FinTech’s contribution to economic recovery in the Yangtze River Delta region". The keynote speech was delivered by Zhu Taihui, Research Fellow at IMI, RUC and Member of the Council of China Institution for International Finance. The following experts attended the salon: Chen Daofu, Deputy Director of Research Institute of Finance, Development Research Centre; Li Lihui, former President of Bank of China and Head of Blockchain Group of National Internet Finance Association, and Yang Tao, Deputy Director of National Institution for Finance & Development, CASS. The event was moderated by Song Ke, Deputy Secretary of CPC of School of Finance, Deputy Director of IMI, and Executive Director of FinTech Institute, RUC.

Zhu Taihui delivered a speech on "FinTech as a drive of double chain linkage and high-quality economic development". Zhu stressed that, firstly, the Yangtze River Delta region plays a key role in China’s economy. The Covid-triggered impact on the region has put the economy of the whole country under pressure. As a pacesetter of China’s economic growth, the region accounts for 1/4 of the country’s GDP and industrial production, and 1/3 of the country’s imports and exports with its three provinces (Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui) and the municipality of Shanghai. The pandemic has posed a great challenge to the region from both the supply and demand ends, presenting a major shock to the overall operation of the macro economy, with employment pressure reaching a record high and small and medium-sized enterprises running in difficulty. As the pandemic is under control, a package of policies has been implemented to stabilize the economy, thus leading to a rebound in May. However, uncertainties still exist.

Secondly, regulatory policies have supported FinTech with a special focus on the financial supply chain. Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, financial regulators have issued policies to encourage financial institutions to better serve the real economy by using FinTech. The policies have also served to lift medium-sized, small and micro enterprises out of difficulty. Moreover, FinTech regulatory policies have been noticeably improved by a clearer "three-dimensional supervision framework", to make sure that "financial institutions are regulated by licensing agency, technological services are in charge of outsourcing platforms, and the data is regulated by the credit system". The policy package above mentioned prioritized monetary and financial policies and placed more emphasis on the enabling role of FinTech. In the long run, the key to high-quality economic development lies in a high-level cycle of "technology-industry-finance". It is through financial services that FinTech can promote the digital financial supply chain and help form the cycle.

Finally, data, industry, channel and ecology are essential to promote the "double linkage" of the financial and industrial supply chain by digitalization. The rapid advance of FinTech and the digital economy has made the "double chain linkage" the tendency of the future. The core of "double chain linkage" is that the financial and industrial supply chain should be interconnected in terms of scenario, channel and customer through the digitalization of financial services and industrial enterprises. During this process, financial institutions need to tap the potential of data, industry, channel and ecology, so as to integrate the financial system and the real economy.