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SHANGHAI – Shanghai authorities have approved 864 financial institutions in the city to resume operations, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday, as it gradually eased the city-wide lockdown that began seven weeks ago.
The move is part of the Financial Center’s plan to allow the massive reopening and resumption of normal life after the lockdown was implemented to prevent the worst outbreak in China since the coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan in late 2019.
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Among the 864 listed financial institutions listed on the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shanghai Futures Exchange and the China Financial Futures Exchange’s Shanghai Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau are among the companies listed on the “white list”. That formula.
The list also includes the Shanghai branches of other state lenders, including the Bank of Communications, and the Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, and the China Construction Bank.
Priority was given to financial institutions that conduct business or system operations across the country, the source said, adding that those currently operating under so-called “closed-loop” management or providing financial support to companies to resume operations were also considered first.
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Shanghai authorities plan to publish more “white lists” on a weekly basis to allow more financial institutions to resume operations, according to a regulatory bureau notification.
The Shanghai government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The state-owned newspaper Shanghai Securities News reported the approval earlier on Wednesday.
The Bank of Communications said an outlet in Jinshan district resumed business on Wednesday.
“From today and onwards, some outlets of the Shanghai branch of the Bank of Communications will gradually resume operations in accordance with Shanghai’s epidemic prevention and control situation,” the lender said in a press release.
More than 20,000 bankers, businessmen and other workers have slept in their office towers in Shanghai’s Luzhaju district since the end of March to keep China’s huge financial hub open during the lockdown.
Shanghai has already allowed key manufacturers in sectors including the automotive industry, life sciences, chemicals and semiconductors to resume production since late April, after the latest wave of transmission showed signs of stabilizing the commercial hub that limited its lion’s share of 25 million inhabitants. Home.
(Reporting by Winnie Zhou, Samuel Shane and Brenda Goh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantraman)