Special Topic: Taihu World Culture Forum · Qiantang Dialogue On November 12-13, the "Taihu World Culture Forum · Qiantang Dialogue" was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, with the theme "Mutual Learning and Innovation in Wealth and Financial Culture." Lu Jianqiang, former Chairman of CZBANK, emphasized in his speech that reshaping financial logic with social value is essential to truly realize the political and people-oriented nature of finance.
Drawing from years of experience in finance, he noted that both Western Wall Street finance and China's financial sector in recent years seem to have lost their way. Research indicates that Wall Street finance has become a tool to control the real economy and even society. While China's financial industry has grown rapidly since reform and opening up, the flaws of Western finance have gradually emerged. "For example, the 'hunting mentality'—over-serving strong enterprises while neglecting struggling ones, withdrawing support when it's most needed, and the disorderly expansion of financial capital—these issues have become increasingly apparent in recent years."
He particularly highlighted that in every financial innovation frontier, "bad money drives out good." "I have a deep impression of P2P. Initially, many platforms were quite good, but eventually, they all turned into 'bad money,' throwing out the baby with the bathwater—it's a great pity."
Additionally, Lu mentioned that the 2023 Financial Work Conference explicitly emphasized the political and people-oriented nature of finance, clearly addressing how to view and develop finance. The most critical point is prioritizing the functionality of finance. As finance operates under national licenses and serves the greater good, its political and people-oriented nature is reflected in its functionality.
In his view, two major issues stand out: first, China's positioning of finance, and second, the need for a comprehensive evaluation system aligned with this positioning. "As chairman of two institutions, 80-90% of my efforts were focused on making money and expanding scale, where profitability clearly overshadowed functionality. I wanted to help struggling enterprises, but doing so rarely brought profits. This raises the question: should functionality or profitability come first?" The core issue is that finance cannot be evaluated solely from a financial or economic perspective but must also consider social and political dimensions, reshaping its logic based on social value.
To address this, Lu proposed a new evaluation framework after years of reflection, dividing financial assessment into three parts: 50% weight assigned to the Party committee, government, and service targets to evaluate support for the real economy and public welfare; 30% assigned to professional institutions like the People's Bank of China and banking regulators to assess risk control, non-performing ratios, and core capital adequacy; and 20% assigned to shareholders to evaluate profitability.
Disclaimer: All meeting transcripts are real-time records and have not been reviewed by speakers. The purpose of publishing this article is to convey more information, not to endorse the views or confirm the descriptions.