Professor Buck K.W. Pei, associate dean of Asia programs at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, said, “Shanghai is benchmarking itself aggressively toward New York in terms of being a financial capital.
“New York has 10% of its workers in financial services. Shanghai has 2% in financial services. They know they need to attract and educate more – and not just in banking, but to diversify into investment banking, hedge funds, commodities, bonds, private equity, venture capital, insurance products.”
Many of the largest Chinese banks have headquarters in Beijing, not Shanghai. The New York Times reported Buck K.W Pei, said, “And if you think of investment banking, there are only a handful of companies in Shanghai. They are very small compared to say, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. The largest investment company headquartered in Shanghai has only 2,000 to 3,000 people.”