Shanghai High People's Court released White Paper on the Trial of Financial Cases in Shanghai Courts of 2018 (“White Paper”) in Chinese and English versions.
Shanghai is China’s financial center, and the seat of Shanghai Stock Exchange, China's largest stock exchange. China is also trying to develop Shanghai into an international financial center. As a result, more often than not, the most representative financial lawsuits appear in Shanghai courts.
The White Paper consists of three documents that cover the situation of all courts in Shanghai throughout 2018. You can download these documents by clicking:
Report on the Trial of Financial Cases in Shanghai Courts 2018;
Ten Noteworthy Financial Cases in Shanghai Courts of 2018;
Report on Trials of Financial Lease Contract Cases in Shanghai Courts 2014-2018.
We have extracted some of these documents:
In 2018, the courts in Shanghai had accepted 170,955 financial cases of first instance, 168,520 of which were closed, with a closing rate of 98.57%.
Among the first-instance cases accepted by Shanghai courts, the top five disputes by the caseload were those arising from credit cards, financial loan contracts, financial lease contracts, insurance, as well as securities and futures.
The total amount in controversy of first-instance financial cases accepted by Shanghai courts reached CNY 141.07 billion (approximately USD 20 billion), exceeding CNY 100 billion for the first time, with a year-on-year increase of 106%.
The top three disputes by the amount in controversy were those arising from financial loan contracts, credit cards, and financial lease contracts.
The financial cases accepted by Shanghai courts in 2018 presented five characteristics:
(1)Cases establishing trading rules of the financial market and other new types of cases had been constantly emerging;
(2)The amount in controversy of cases on credit card disputes increased significantly;
(3)The financing-related cases increased in number and diversified in types;
(4)The number of factoring cases increased sharply;
(5)There were a large number of financial cases involving extensive stakeholders.
Shanghai High People's Court expressed at the White Paper release conference that it was studying the financial disputes and trying to predict what new kind of cases would occur in Shanghai in the future.
For example, in order to support the listing of science and technology innovation companies, China has established a Science and Technology Innovation Board at the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which may induce some securities disputes correspondently. On 22nd. July 2019, the shares of the Science and Technology Innovation Board were officially listed and traded.
China's Supreme People's Court (“SPC”) issued "Several Opinions on Providing Judicial Protection for Establishing the Science and Technology Innovation Board and Piloting Registration System" (关于为设立科创板并试点注册制改革提供司法保障的若干意见), specifying that the first-instance civil cases of disputes arising from securities offering, securities underwriting contract, securities listing sponsorship contract, securities listing contract and securities fraud liabilities involving the companies listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, shall be subject to the pilot centralized jurisdiction of Shanghai Financial Court.
Accordingly, the White Paper states that after the securities of the Science and Technology Innovation Board are listed and traded, cases on securities-related disputes are very likely to rise over time in Shanghai.
Cover Image by sean sheng(https://pixabay.com/users/seansheng-537027/) from Pixabay
Contributors: Guodong Du 杜国栋
