The Second Forum on Financial and Legal Practice - the Seminar on the Business of Asset Management under Multi- Supervision and its Dispute Resolution Successfully Held
Wang Ruihua^*

On January 9, 2013, the secondForum on Financial and Legal Practice - the Seminar on the Business of Asset Management under Multi-Supervision and its Dispute Resolution was grandly held. The seminar was jointly sponsored by Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC), Beijing Financial Services Law Society and the Financial Arbitration and Mediation Center at Central University of Finance and Economics and co-sponsored by the Commercial BankingCommittee of Beijing Lawyers Association. The International Conference Hall of BAC was fully occupied by an audience of more than 220 people. They were the leaders fromChina Banking Regulatory Commission, People’s Bank of China, Supreme People’s Courtand various associations in financial sector; the representatives of the People’s Court of Chaoyang District of BeijingMunicipality,as well as the heads of different financial bodies, such as commercial banks, companies in the fields of trust, insurance, securities and futuresand the entities of third party wealth management, institutions of private equity and wealth management etc. There were also experts on research and teaching of financial law and some senior arbitrators. Being brought together by the seminar, they had in-depth discussions on the hot issues in legal practice, such as wealth management, business in banks，securities, the management of assets as funds and dispute resolution in the business of asset management under multi- supervision in China.

The forum was hosted by Mr. Chen Sheng, the executive director forthe Financial Arbitration and Mediation Center at Central University of Finance and Economics. He introduced the background of the seminarand the guests present to the participants.Secretary-General of the BAC Lin Zhiwei delivered a welcoming speech at the meeting, in which he, based onthe primary purpose of the forum,the operations of BAC’s dispute resolution in financial sector and BAC’s envision in this regard, extended his wish that throughcultivating a well-known brand name, this forum could be well established in the sector, keep encouraging the exchanges of ideas among financial practitioners and legal experts, thus bringing about meaningful financial and legal research results, rendering the forum more influential in the financial sector as well as other fields and offering further intellectual support for financial and legal services.

Liu Min,Chief Judge of the Second Civil Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court,led the second session of the forum. The executive director for the Financial Arbitration and Mediation Center at Central University of Finance and Economics Mr. Chen Sheng, the Secretary General of Beijing Financial Services Law Society Xing Huiqiang, and Hu Lei,the director of the Legal and Compliance Department of New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. Hu Lei made respective speeches titled “the Model and Updates of the Multi-Supervision on the Business of Asset Management”. Focusing on the updates of the business of wealth management of banks, Director Chen Sheng noted that the trust nature of such kind of business should be made clear and the idea of investors-orientated supervision should be strengthened. The supervision of the relevant regulatory authorities on the compliance of sales should also be reinforced by means of promoting the transparency of the market. Secretary General Xing Huiqiang, through clarifying,comparing and analyzing the relevant regulations of CBRC, CSRC and CIRC,specified the insufficiency of the instructions on the risks in the business of asset management and the information disclosure in it. Director Chief Hu Lei, in light of the characteristics of a number of “new investmentnew policies” handed out by CIRC in 2012, shared with the attendees the updates in the asset management business in insurance sector. Wang Ping, director of the Commercial Banking Committee of Beijing Lawyers Association gave his noteworthy comments on the speeches.

The third session of the forum was led by Yang Min, vice president of the Beijing Branch of the Bank of East Asia (China) Limited. Han Xu, general manager of the Department of Law and Compliance of Bank of Beijing, Wen Jianxiu, general manager of the Legal Department of China Citic Bank and Tang Shumei, vice president of China Credit Trust Co., Ltd. presented from various perspectives the updates of the wealth management business of banks. General Manager Han Xu, by comparing the advantages, challenges and problems in wealth management the banks are facing to= strongly advocated a close cooperation between financial practitioners and other walks of life so as to develop afavorable judicial and operational environment for the wealth management business. General Manager Wen Jianxiu stressed thatcommercial banks should play an appropriate role and placethemselves in a suitable position in wealth management business, and should well handle the sharing of risks incurredin the business. Vice President Tang Shumei made a thoughtful analysis on the legal relationships in trust, the development ofthis industry and the types and characteristics of disputes in it. He underlined the privilege of resolving trust disputes through the way of arbitration. Chen Haiyan, General Manager of the Legal Department of Beijing Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China,made a comprehensive and thorough comment on the three speeches, noting that while promoting wealth management products, commercial banks should get a clear picture of their role, reinforce self-disciplining and perform the obligation of information disclosure in accordance with law.

The fourth session of the forum was centered on the updates of the asset management in funds and securities industries. Motivated by thehost GuXin, the general counsel of the Legal Department of Societe Generale (China) Ltd., the three guest speakers, Wu Jianwei, general counsel of the Department of Law and Compliance of Citic Securities, An Kui, the president of Harvest Fund and Xie Kun, deputy general manager of the Department of Law and Compliance of Hongyuan Securities Co., Ltd., based on the practice in their respective sectors, elaborated the updates of the asset management business in the sectors of fund and securities. General Counsel Wu Jianwei fully affirmed the significance of the “new polices for securities traders” for asset management of the traders, and pointed out the problems and challenges facing securities traders under the circumstances of separate operation and separate supervision as well as the importance and urgency for building up a integrating mechanism for resolving the disputes over related business amoung various financial sub-sectors. President AnKui shared with the attendees the operational issues in the practice of fund asset management. He called for unifying the legislation and judicial regulations and adopting a unified supervision model. Deputy General Manager Xie Kun, based on his practical experiences, voiced his bewilderment over the connotation and denotation of the definitions of securities and trust and the qualitative vague of the legal relationships in asset management business of securities companies. He specified the problems to be handled by securities companies in conducting asset management business under the circumstances of separate supervision. Chen Xiao, President of Mei Yi Investment Company Limited, made a comprehensive comment on those speeches, noting that for the purpose of protecting investors, the preventive policies should be taken on the basis of differentiating general investors and professional investors.

In the fifth session, the guests were getting more spirited and the forum was going into its full swing. Chaired by the president of the Supervision Committee of Founder Securities Ms. Lu Qi, and was participated by Li Youguang, chief judge of the second Civil Tribunal of the People’s Court of Chaoyang District of Beijing Municipality, Qin Yuemin, lawyer and partner of Llinks Law Offices and ShenHongyu, judge of the Fourth Civil Tribunalof the Supreme People’s Court. Focusing on the topic of “the Problems in Asset Management Business and its Dispute Resolution” and in light of judicial practice and occupational experiences, they voiced their opinions. Chief judgeLi Youguang, based on the case types in the trial of disputes in the asset management businessand from the perspectives of investors and asset managers, made an analysis on the causes for the disputes in the business, noting that it is necessary to make use of various forces in the society and use diversified dispute resolution measures to handle those disputes. Lawyer Qin Yuemin, on the basis of his own occupational experiences, shared with the attendees the stories of “the Case of Hua An Funds vs.Lehman Europe on the Dispute over the Cooperation in Financial Derivatives”, and “the Case of Investors vs.China Resources SZITIC Trust Co., Ltd.” in a lively and humorous way, which aroused the enthusiasm of the audience. Judge ShenHongyu denoted theadjudication principles of judges through interpreting the final judgment forthe first case of “Valuation Adjustment Mechanism”, and stressed that while trying a case an adjudicator should adhere to the spirit of freedom of contract in the market and respect the adjudication idea of party autonomy. As the comment guest of this session, Professor Peng Bing from Peking University Law School made wonderful and careful comments on the first case of “Valuation Adjustment Mechanism” as well as the issues such as the dispute resolution in asset management business etc.

At last, Vice Director of BAC Wang Hongsong delivered a closing speech, in which she lauded the professional and down-to-ground contend of those speeches made by the guests and commentators and the straight-to-the-point speech style. She also fully affirmed the organization, engineering andspot services of the forum. She stressedthatBAC, as an arbitration body which making use of social forces to resolve disputes for the parties, would continue its support for the financial forum, as BAC was a services provider for dispute resolution; accordingly it must keep track of the changes to the needs for dispute resolution. BAC, which was a mechanism for dispute resolution through non-governmental forces, was open and inclusive, thus was more adaptable to the ever changing social situation. BAC hoped that it could hear different opinions and suggestions, glean the resources of knowledge, experience, thinking and ideas for financial dispute resolution through this forum, consequently could make arbitration not only a means for resolving disputes of the parties impartially and fairly, but also could provide a positive guidance for the sound development of various industries. On behalf of BAC, she extended thanks to the attendees for their passionate participation and hoped they could keep paying attention to and participating in the financial forum.

The forum was concluded in warmapplause of the attendees.