On 4 Aug. 2022, Shanghai High People’s Court held a press conference, at which it reported on the financial and commercial trials by Shanghai courts in 2021, released a white paper and the top ten financial and commercial cases (2021) of Shanghai courts, and for the first time issued the “Report on Asset Management Cases Trialed by Shanghai Courts in 2019-2021” (2019-2021年上海法院涉資產管理糾紛案件審判情況通報).
In 2018, China established the Shanghai Financial Court, and the Shanghai High People’s Court was designated as its appellate court. Overall, people’s courts in Shanghai have tried the most significant financial cases in China.
In 2021, Shanghai courts accepted the highest number of financial and commercial cases in the last five years, with 197,484 first-instance cases (a year-on-year increase of 10.16%) and 3,348 second-instance cases, among which 197,090 first-instance cases were concluded (a year-on-year increase of 10.18%).
For the first time, the number of loan contract disputes involving financial institutions topped the list of financial and commercial cases accepted by Shanghai courts in 2021. The main reason is that financial institutions have further strengthened their loan management and debt collection efforts in accordance with the requirements of financial risk management and control. This has significantly shortened the time from the conclusion of loan contracts to the initiation of litigation, and made more contracts enter the post-default disposition phase.
From 2019 to 2021, Shanghai courts had concluded a total of 2,672 asset management cases at first instance, with the overall value of the subject matter increasing by 23.79%, from more than CNY 26.9 billion (2019) to more than CNY 33.3 billion (2021). The causes of action showed a trend of diversification, among which disputes over entrusted wealth management contracts, disputes over entrusted wealth management contracts with financial institutions, and disputes over trading in securities investment funds were the most common types.
Cover Photo by Lin Zhang on Unsplash
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
