"China's Financial Markets: An Overview" was chaired by Charles Calomiris, the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions and Academic Director of the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School. The panelists included: Lee Branstetter, the Daniel W. Stanton Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School (presenter), and Xiaobo Lu, associate professor of political science at Barnard College and director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University (discussant).

Researching China's financial markets can be challenging as the task involves a moving target. Tremendous change continues to take place. Despite the inherent difficulties, three main themes emerge: First, China's pronounced credit and investment cycles have significantly impacted economic growth and reform. Second, the state still plays the central role in the intermediation of capital and the Chinese economy. Third, reform of both financial markets and of state owned enterprises has been very closely intertwined. This is likely to be the case moving forward as well, which could impose some constraints on the pace of financial reform.