China’s central bank said it had agreed with the US Treasury Department at a meeting in Shanghai to appoint contact persons for future “financial stress events” – a rare example of the world’s two largest economies searching for common ground.
The two sides also exchanged “lists of financial stability contacts” during the fifth meeting of the so-called Financial Working Group, which was established after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to China last year.
“The People’s Bank of China and the U.S. Treasury Department signed an exchange of notes on strengthening Sino-US cooperation in financial stability,” said the PBoC’s statement on the meetings on August 15 and 16.
The Ministry of Finance said in its own statement on Monday that the two sides had exchanged letters “to support coordination in times of financial stress, to strengthen appropriate information sharing and reduce overall uncertainty between the Ministry of Finance and the PBoC on crisis management and frameworks for reconstruction and resolution.” The exchange of key contacts is intended to facilitate rapid coordination in cases of financial stress or operational resilience issues, the statement said.
“US officials also raised differences of opinion during the talks,” the US statement said, without giving any further details about what the differences of opinion were.
The talks were the first meeting between senior business officials from the United States and China since Beijing’s leaders outlined their longer-term priorities at a bi-decade gathering last month.
The meetings in Shanghai will focus on issues such as macroeconomic and financial stability, the management of the International Monetary Fund and capital market issues, a Finance Ministry spokesman said before the meeting.
The agreements will enable the financial management departments of both sides to maintain timely and smooth communication channels and reduce uncertainty when financial stress events and operational risks of financial institutions occur,” China’s statement said.
Financial institutions attended the meetings for the first time, according to the PBoC report, which did not name the companies. Sustainable finance and areas of possible cooperation were discussed, it said.
With support from Viktoria Dendrinou.
