On April 3, 2025, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE) and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co., Ltd. (SPD Bank) signed a strategic cooperation agreement (the “Agreement”), under which both parties would join hands to create a new model of university-bank cooperation, to jointly facilitate the construction of the "Five Centers" of Shanghai, and make contribution to advancing the Chinese path to modernization.
XU Tao, Secretary of the Party Committee of SUFE, LIU Yuanchun, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of SUFE, ZHANG Weizhong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of SPD Bank Head Office, and XIE Wei, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of SPD Bank Head Office, and President of SPD Bank Research Institute witnessed the signing ceremony (the “Signing Ceremony”). YAO Lingzhen, Vice President of SUFE, LIU Liya, Vice President of SUFE, KANG Jie, Vice President of SPD Bank Head Office and Chairman of Shanghai Innovation Bank Co., Ltd., and WANG Sunan, Director of Corporate Business of SPD Bank Head Office, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of SPD Bank Shanghai Branch signed the Agreement on behalf of their respective parties. The Signing Ceremony was presided over by LIU Yiyan, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Executive Director, Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of SPD Bank Head Office.
On behalf of SPD Bank, ZHANG Weizhong extended a welcome to XU Tao, LIU Yuanchun and their delegation, and he stated that as a "financial business card" of Shanghai, SPD Bank had been adhering to its original mission of serving national strategies and Shanghai’s urban development, focusing on promoting the "Five Key Areas of Finance", supporting the construction of the "Five Centers" of Shanghai, and facilitating the implementation of the "digital and intelligent" strategy; the cooperation between SUFE and SPD Bank would achieve in-depth integration of academia and finance, and common development of theory and practice; and by empowering each other and working together towards a common direction, SUFE and SPD Bank would accelerate the formation of a new-type cooperation community, thus injecting new force into Shanghai’s development and making contribution to the construction of a powerful financial country.
XU Tao stated that the cooperation between the parties not only meant proactive commitment to implementing national strategies and a response to effectively support the construction of "Five Centers" of Shanghai, but also an inevitable choice for SUFE and SPD Bank to deepen the industry-university integration, facilitate the high-quality development of financial disciplines, and support financial innovation in the new era. SUFE would cooperate with SPD Bank to plan for development from a higher perspective, layout for the future with a longer-term vision, deepen the industry-university-research collaborative innovation, and build a hub for financial innovation; both parties would focus on in-depth industry-university integration for the purpose of cultivating versatile financial leading talents; in addition, both parties would accelerate the transformation of financial innovation achievements, and build a powerful chain from technology to scenarios, thus accurately empowering the high-quality development of the real economy with financial resources.
After the agreement is signed, SUFE and SPD Bank will, according to the requirements of building a powerful education country and a powerful financial country, transform their professional advantages and resource advantages into cooperation advantages, development advantages, and ecosystem advantages, and launch comprehensive in-depth cooperation between them. Specifically, both parties will take Party building co-construction as the guide to create a revolution-themed red benchmark for university-bank cooperation; will take the research platform as the core to build the integrated innovation ecosystem of "industry, university, government, research and application"; will take talent cultivation as the mission to jointly cultivate high-quality versatile financial talents; will take the opportunity of the new campus construction of SUFE to jointly build a smart campus and achieve mutual empowerment and win-win of education and finance. Therefore, both parties could facilitate the research innovation and industrial innovation, and serve the development of new quality productive force better, and jointly make remarkable achievements in deep integration of financial education and financial innovation.
On the Signing Ceremony, the SUFE-SPD Institute of Financial Innovation (the “Institute”) was officially established. SUFE and SPD Bank will accelerate the exploration and construction of a new-type think tank research institution that is featured by complementary advantages, mutual support, and ecosystem empowerment. Focusing on the integration of "industry, university, research, government, and application", the Institute will be engaged in research and talent cultivation in fields such as sci-tech finance, inclusive finance, digital finance, cross-border finance, treasury finance, and green finance, will accelerate the transformation of theoretical innovation achievements in finance into practical application, and explore new models of technology empowering finance and finance empowering industries, thus supporting the high-quality development of the real economy, and making contribution to the construction of a powerful financial country and Shanghai International Financial Center with SUFE’s solutions, SPD Bank’s voices, and Shanghai’s wisdom.
Leaderships of SPD Bank, including XUE Hongli, Chief Economist and Financial Market Director of SPD Bank Head Office, Executive President of SPD Bank Research Institute, and General Manager of the Financial Market Department of SPD Bank Head Office, as well heads of relevant departments of SUFE jointly attended the Signing Ceremony.
