| Recently the state official release of Shanghai International Finance Center Establishment Proposal has made the framework and specific route of establishing Shanghai as International Finance Center (IFC) increasingly concrete. As the molding of Shanghai as IFC is more and more in focus, more and more intact are the direction, paths and principles of it, which suggests the establishment of Shanghai as IFC has reached a new jumping-off point. How the Finance Center functions and what role it plays are the issues concerned both by government and theory researchers. In the early 1990s, function-based financial system reform theory emerged and later became increasingly mature. The functional perspective, as an innovative research approach, to some extent surpasses the ordinary institutional perspective which always presumes the fixed nature of the current mode. In fact, financial function is more stable than financial institution. Following the change of time and region, financial function is less variable. Therefore, compared with the institutional perspective, the functional perspective more fits into the study of long-term development trend of economic system. The investigation of financial functional perspective provides a more scientific framework and model for the research of the whole financial system. In view of the significance of functional perspective in the analysis of financial institution, financial management and financial products, the proposition of functional perspective has facilitated new theoretical explanation for the world-range financial system reforms, and the fundamental concepts of the perspective have cast influence on financial reforms and financial structure in some countries.The present thesis begins with the literature review of related studies on IFC, exploring IFC’s fundamental concepts, forming causes, hierarchy and guidelines. Based on the comparative study of some fundamental theories of financial functional perspective, the author attempts to define the financial system functions of IFC and explains the factual manifestations of those functions. Accordingly, the thesis finally puts forward the function-based suggestions for development:price-oriented resource collocation is the primary task of establishing Shanghai as IFC; the agreement of financial structure and entitative economy is an important factor of financial stability; and the endogenetic-type natural evolution of IFC is an inevitable process with the support of government. |
