On July 3rd, the Digital Finance Forum of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference was held in Beijing. The attending guests discussed the future development and trends of digital finance. At the meeting, Liu Dongmin, deputy director of the International Finance Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and associate researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, released the “Global Financial Competitiveness Report 2025” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”).
According to Liu Dongmin, in terms of concept, global financial competitiveness refers to the ability of an economy’s financial system to allocate financial resources and manage risks more effectively on a global scale compared to other economies, thereby promoting economic growth and social development.
The Beijing Business Today reporter learned on the spot that the report evaluated the global financial competitiveness of 31 countries in 2024 from five dimensions including financial industry competitiveness, monetary competitiveness, financial infrastructure competitiveness, fintech competitiveness and international financial governance competitiveness, with a total of 43 indicators. The evaluation results show that the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan rank in the top three respectively. China ranks fourth overall, rising one place from the previous year. The gap with the United States, which ranks first, has been narrowing for four consecutive years.
To be more specific, among the five dimensions, the one where China has the smallest gap with the world’s leading level is fintech competitiveness, ranking third globally. This is also the second consecutive year that China’s fintech competitiveness has ranked at this level. Meanwhile, the score of China’s fintech competitiveness in 2024 has significantly increased compared to the previous year. Liu Dongmin pointed out that the main driving force is the substantial enhancement of the development potential of China’s fintech industry.
In addition, the absolute score of the China Fintech Industry Development Potential Index has risen significantly from 35.12 points in 2023 to 57.25 points in 2024, and the ranking has also risen from 12th to 4th place. Among the detailed indicators, China’s AI talent index rose from the 8th place in 2023 to the 4th place in 2024. The credit level of fintech rose from the 16th place in 2023 to the 4th place in 2024.
At the forum, based on the viewpoints of many attending guests, behind the enhancement of China’s global financial competitiveness lies the profound transformation brought about by digital finance. The 2023 Central Financial Work Conference pointed out that efforts should be made to do well in the “five major articles” of technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, elderly care finance and digital finance. Digital finance is booming and injecting new impetus into global economic development.
According to statistics, the global digital financial market size exceeded 4.5 trillion US dollars in 2024, and the scale of China’s digital financial market reached 3.2 trillion US dollars, making it one of the most dynamic digital financial markets in the world. At the meeting, Li Dongrong, the former vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, said.
Regarding the development trend of China’s digital finance, Li Dongrong pointed out that, on an international scale, the pace of China’s digital finance “going global” is accelerating. Fintech enterprises are proactively venturing overseas, exporting their experience and technology in digital finance to regions such as Southeast Asia. Domestically, China’s digital finance is evolving towards intelligence and digitalization. Artificial intelligence technology is constantly advancing and is increasingly being deeply applied in areas such as intelligent customer service, intelligent investment, and risk prevention and control. This has narrowed the technological gap for financial institutions, especially small and medium-sized ones, during their digital transformation process, injecting new impetus into the high-quality development of digital finance.
Regarding the subsequent development of digital finance in our country, Li Dongrong put forward suggestions from four aspects. First, adhere to the principle of technological neutrality, encourage the rational application and innovation of new technologies, and continuously promote the application of regulatory technology. Second, we will continue to improve and establish a data security governance system, take multiple measures to safeguard data security, and while promoting the innovative application of data, fulfill the obligation of data security protection. Third, adhere to the customer-centered concept, promote the collaborative innovation of financial product service models and risk prevention and control, and ensure that innovative applications are matched with risk management capabilities. Fourth, we should enhance international cooperation in the field of digital finance, actively participate in the formulation of standards related to digital finance, and continuously increase China’s say and influence in the field of digital finance.
