The recent growth in the scale and different forms of shadow banking and alternative finance mechanisms in China poses many questions of understanding, from its sustainability; different forms of credit growth; to the role of local government financing, and the tensions between financial reform policy and practice.

While shadow banking and alternative finance are not new in China, its growth in scale and diversity after 2009 poses old problems of understanding economic, social and political relations in China in new ways. This is because informal financial relations in China, much like the concept of state capitalism, cuts across many of the traditional dualisms of state and market, formal and informal, official and unofficial relations in China.

The workshop, to be held on 27 May at the University of Sydney, will act as a forum for researchers from across various disciplines to share their perspectives and research on questions arising from these topics.

Programme

8:30am – 9:00am Welcome and introductory remarks

Jeffrey Riegel (China Studies Centre, Director, USYD)

9:00am – 10:00am China’s rising leverage challenges

Opening keynote by Guonan Ma (Bruegel, EU-based think tank & ACRI-UTS)

10:00am – 10:30am Morning break

10.30am – 12.30pm Panel 1

Too important to fail? The politics of banking reform in China

Stephen Bell (University of Queensland) & Hui Feng (Griffith University)

Digital disruption with Chinese characteristics: Internet Finance and regulatory dilemma

Hui Feng (Griffith University)

Implications of the internationalisation of the RMB for banking in China

Kathy Walsh (ANU)

Towards a Money View of liquidity relations in China

Michael Beggs & Luke Deer (USYD)

12:30pm – 2:00pm Lunch

2:00pm – 3:00pm China’s shadow banking and small and medium enterprises

Afternoon keynote by Kellee Tsai (HKUST) Discussant: Vivienne Bath (USYD)

3:00pm – 3:30pm Afternoon break

3:30pm – 5:00pm Panel 2

China’s informal finance, an enterprise perspective

Hans Hendrischke (USYD) and Wei Li (USYD)

Shadow banking and underground banking in China

David Chaikin (USYD)

Microcredit, (under)development and (de)marginalisation in rural China

Nicholas Loubere (ANU)

5:00pm – 6:00pm Concluding remarks and discussion about publication plans

Luke Deer (USYD) to lead the discussion

Tickets are available HERE