For the time being, Shanghai has already become the harbor for some financial markets with national influence, such as the foreign exchange market, the gold market, securities market, futures market and the inter-bank bond market etc.
However in the past when the centralized economic system was prevalent or in the early periods of reform when marketization was barely developed, financial organizations favored an institutional structure featuring “parallel set-up of business departments at the subordinate and head office level” which means branch offices of a financial institution in different locations must establish corresponding business departments as contact points to interface with relevant departments at the head office.