Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Shanghai's financial market staged a fast growth rate this year, taking it a step closer to fulfilling its ambition of becoming an international financial hub.
Trading in the first 11 months skyrocketed by 70 percent to nearly 60 trillion yuan (US$8.24 trillion), according to a a briefing given to a financial work meeting yesterday, chaired by Vice Mayor Feng Guoqin.
From January through November, the added value of the financial market reached 70 billion yuan, 13 percent up over the same period of last year. The increase is 1.5 percentage points higher year-on-year, government data indicates.
On December 18, the 16th anniversary of Shanghai Security Exchange, the market value of companies traded at the exchange hit a record high of 6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year jump of 160 percent.
Financial institutions increased 79 to a total of 689, by the end of October.
All the Shanghai-based publicly traded state-owned companies have completed shareholding reform.
Each of the first nine foreign banks approved to prepare for the local corporations in China have opted to land in Shanghai.
To help push ahead the insurance sector, Shanghai will lead the nation in unveiling a compulsory public fire insurance policy next May. It will also design products for the 2010 World Expo and draft marketing strategies for the new policies.