In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the municipal government departments in the Lin-gang Special Area – located in the Pudong New Area of East China's Shanghai city – are understood to have recently proactively and efficiently helped finance and technology group HSBC Fintech Service (Shanghai) Co Ltd to handle an increase in its registered capital.

Parent company HSBC is a London-based global financial and banking powerhouse with strong and enduring historical links to China. Its HSBC Fintech Service (Shanghai) Co Ltd is the first fintech subsidiary set up by a multinational financial institution in the country.

After one and a half years of development, the company started a new round of capital injection plans.

However, due to the closed-loop management system enacted across the entire area of the Pudong New Area, the paper application and materials for changing the registered capital could not be submitted to the Lin-gang Special Area Administration for Market Regulation on schedule. The problem was that if the capital increase could not be completed in the first 10 days of April, the company's daily operating funds might be affected.

Hearing about the situation, the Lin-gang Special Area Administration for Market Regulation and other related departments worked together to establish a fast-track channel for the company through online document collecting, on-site approvals and subsequent follow-up action.

A Lin-gang official said it took only two days to help the company resolve its problem.

A relieved company subsequently lauded Lin-gang's services amid the epidemic and its chief administrative officer, Zhang Zhe, wrote a letter of thanks.

The letter said the experience had positively reinforced HSBC's assessment of Lin-gang as a world-class business environment and inspired the company to engage more with the area.