Shenyang, the regional financial center of northeastern China, boasts various advantages over other cities in the northeast China in terms of policy preferences, location, status and development.

Shenyang is also the center of financial regulation and supervision in Northeast China. Having more preferential policies and information, Shenyang is home to northeast China’s sole regional institution for financial regulation and three major financial supervision institutions at the provincial level.

According to strategic layout made by the state, Shenyang is the only pilot zone for financial reform in northeast China, thus having privileges in exploring and implementing new policies. In Dec 2013, the state approved Shenyang’s pilot program for optimizing the financial environment, and officially included the development of Shenyang’s financial sector into the National Development Strategy. Shenyang is also designated as the regional financial center in northeastern China by the state.

Shenyang is also the capital concentration area in northeast China. Thanks to its advantage in location and status, Shenyang has a total of 1.15 trillion yuan of deposit balance and 910 billion yuan of loan balance, accounting for one third of the entire deposit and loan in Liaoning province and one sixth of that of northeast China. The annual volume of security transactions reaches 1.3 trillion, and the premium income stands at 14.7 billion. Major economic indicators show that Shenyang’s financial market is among the most dynamic in northeast China. The bill center of ICBC is the biggest bill market in northeast China; Shenyang Joint Property Exchange is a property right market that has wide influence in northeastern China; and Liaoning Equity Exchange Center is the only equity exchange market in the whole province. There are a total of 442 financial institutions, including 133 banks, securities and insurance.

The financial sector is the pillar sector of Shenyang, which gives the city an advantage in development. The financial sector marks a growth of 39.6 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 17.2%, accounting for 5.5 percent of the total GDP. It contributes 9.7 percent of the total economic growth, and stimulates economic growth by 0.9 percentage points. The tax revenue from financial enterprises constitutes 11% of the total tax revenue of the city.

In the next 5 years, the development goals for Shenyang's financial sector are: to establish a new financial environment system and mechanism that will meet the needs of new industrialization and marketization and to increase the percentage of added value to 10% of the city's total GDP, and to build Shenyang into a significant regional financial center that meets the standard of National Central Cities.

In the following 5 years, the financial sector of Shenyang should develop into a strategic and leading sector, as well as the top sector in the modern service industry. To fulfill these goals, we should start by promoting the pilot financial program, give importance to financial reform, opening-up and innovation, and strive to build a financial system in accordance with the features of the city so as to provide financial support for building Shenyang into a National Central City.