The Supreme People's Court (SPC) released a guideline on case jurisdiction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Financial Court on Dec 20, which further clarifies the court's scope of case jurisdiction and provides an institutional guarantee for the operation of the court. The guideline will take effect on Jan 1, 2023.

The Chengdu-Chongqing Financial Court is the first cross-provincial financial court in the country. Its establishment is a concrete measure in implementing the central authorities' strategies, and is significant in supporting the implementation of the nation's financial strategies, improving the financial judicial system with Chinese characteristics, safeguarding financial security, and promoting the healthy development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.

The guideline firmly upholds the concept of the integrated development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and highlights the functions of the special court in its jurisdiction across two provincial-level regions to ensure the same adjudication scale on financial cases in the two areas.

The guideline includes 11 articles and comprehensively specifies the jurisdiction of the court on financial cases in civil and commercial, finance-related administrative and execution categories. It defines the relations between different trial levels of financial cases in courts at all levels in Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality. According to the guideline, the jurisdiction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Financial Court covers all financial cases in Chongqing and any location in Sichuan province that falls in the Chengdu-Chonqging economic circle.

Financial civil and commercial cases within the jurisdiction mainly include financial civil and commercial disputes, disputes between financial institutions and companies, financial institution bankruptcy cases, related arbitration and judicial review cases, and the application for acknowledgement and enforcement of cases tried by foreign courts. The court will also exercise centralized jurisdiction over cases in which overseas financial activities harm the legitimate rights and interests of domestic investors, and civil and commercial cases involving financial infrastructure institutions within the jurisdiction.

Finance-related administrative cases mostly include financial administrative disputes involving financial supervisory institutions and organizations authorized by laws, regulations and rules within the jurisdiction, as well as cases involving financial infrastructure institutions within the jurisdiction.

Execution cases mainly include cases concerning the execution of civil and commercial cases of first instance and administrative cases tried by the court itself, the trial of cases of objection to execution and cases of action for objection to execution arising therefrom, and the trial of execution reconsideration cases and execution objection appeal cases executed by grassroots courts within the jurisdiction.