Since 2020, discussions on new infrastructure construction ("new infrastructure" for short) have been in full swing in mainland China.

The Government work report of the State Council in 2020 puts forward that it focuses on supporting "two new and one important", that is, the construction of new infrastructure, new urbanization, transportation, water conservancy and other major projects. Big data, Cloud Computing,artificial intelligence, block chain and other cutting-edge technologies have promoted the development of digital economy and digital society, brought massive new demand, and are constantly promoting the transformation and upgrading of the original infrastructure in various industries.

If you focus your eyes onFinancial industryIn essence, the financial industry has become one of the foundations for the development of various industries of the real economy. In order to meet the needs of the development of the digital economy and digital society, the financial industry is also urgently facing the transformation and upgrading of digitalization, which fundamentally requires that the infrastructure of the financial industry can also adapt to the new type.FinanceThe need for a format, model, or service. In the context of this era, the "new financial infrastructure" came into being.

At the 10th meeting of the Central Committee for comprehensively deepening Reform on March 5, the "work Plan for the overall Supervision of Financial Infrastructure" jointly issued by the people's Bank of China, the Development and Reform Commission and other six departments was examined and approved. The plan is also known as the formal sounding of the "new financial infrastructure".

In a narrow sense, financial infrastructure is equivalent to financial market infrastructure, focusing on the hardware facilities of financial market transactions; in a broad sense, financial infrastructure involves all aspects of financial stable operation, including financial market hardware facilities, financial laws and regulations, accounting systems, information disclosure principles, social credit environment and other institutional arrangements.

As an important part of the national financial system, financial infrastructure plays a vital role in connecting financial institutions, ensuring market operation, serving the real economy and preventing financial risks. its construction and development level is directly related to whether we can give better play to financial functions and promote high-quality economic development.

The "new" of the new financial infrastructure, on the one hand, is reflected in how to effectively use the new cutting-edge technology to optimize the traditional financial market hardware facilities. On the other hand, it is reflected in how to innovate the existing systems, principles and regulations to meet the needs of new financial services.

Since the subprime crisis in 2008, strengthening the overall supervision of financial market infrastructure has become one of the important contents of international financial regulatory reform.

In the Financial Market Infrastructure principles (PFMI) issued by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the payments and settlement Committee (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Regulatory Commission (IOSCO) in 2012, financial market infrastructure is also divided into five main areas: payment systems (Payment System) and central securities depository (Central SecuritiesDepository), central counterparty (Central Counterparty), securities settlement system (Securities Settlement System), transaction database (Trade Repository).

The above-mentioned six-sector plan focuses on the hardware facilities of transactions in the financial market, including financial assets registration and trusteeship system, clearing and settlement system (including central counterparties carrying out centralized clearing business), transaction facilities, transaction report database, important payment system, basic credit information system, and their operating institutions.

In terms of value, PFMI has established all kinds of financial market infrastructure recognized by member states, including China, which first helps to identify and eliminate the differences between original international standards and comprehensively strengthen risk management requirements; secondly, it provides more detailed guidance for the operation and management of financial market infrastructure, emphasizing the minimum requirements for financial market infrastructure risk management. Finally, the PFMI defines the implementation responsibility to the regulatory authorities of the financial market infrastructure and strengthens its market binding force by giving preferential net capital requirements to the financial market infrastructure participating institutions that meet the standards. Therefore, PFMI provides a set of international standards for building a safe and efficient global financial market, which will help the multilateral system to maintain its vitality and better achieve financial stability.

In the financial infrastructure, the payment and clearing system is the basis of financial activities, the credit information system is the support of the stable operation of the modern financial system, the account system is the starting point and end point of capital activities, and the customer identification (KYC) principle and system that the account opening system depends on is an important part of financial institutions' anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing obligations. These infrastructures support the healthy and stable operation of financial markets through coordination and adaptation to each other.

Throughout the world, with the popularity of the mobile Internet and the development of the digital economy, governments and business organizations in many countries or regions have joined the competition of new financial infrastructure, so we have targeted to select several representative markets and focus on financial market infrastructure. By combing its historical evolution, development status and development differences in payment and settlement system, credit information system, account system and customer identification system, we can gain an insight into the potential and opportunities of the future new financial infrastructure under the enabling of financial technology.

At the same time, the financial regulatory system and model are the foundation of the healthy development of the entire financial industry, and have played an important role in promoting the development of financial market infrastructure. Therefore, at the beginning of this report, a considerable space is spent on the regulatory models of each market, in order to help readers understand the relationship between regulatory models and financial market infrastructure.

With this report, I hope to provide new ideas for far-sighted financial practitioners and regulators to practice business innovation or regulatory innovation, realize the coordinated development of financial innovation and financial stability, and jointly build a new financial infrastructure.