Jun Ma
Jun Ma is known as ‘Chief Ma’ in China’s green-finance sector in recognition of the dual role he has played in the last three years, both as the chief economist of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and as the leading proponent for green finance in China as chair of the green finance committee of the China Society for Finance and Banking.
Ma has a unique mix of experience working for Chinese government agencies and global financial organizations. After graduating from university in 1988, he started his first job as a researcher at the Development and Research Center of China’s State Council. From 1992 to 2000, he worked as an economist, first for the World Bank and later for the IMF. After that, he joined Deutsche Bank as its chief economist for Greater China.
In April 2014, he was hired by PBoC as chief economist of its research bureau. Shortly after that, with the support of the central bank, he and his research team embarked on a mission to promote green finance in a bid to ensure green and sustainable development of the economy.
From then on, as the central bank’s chief economist, Ma has successfully mobilized the central bank’s nationwide branches, China’s banking regulatory body, related ministries, universities and research institutes, and larger domestic banks to draft incentive policies, guidelines and regulations on green-credit provision and green-bond issuances.
In the last few years, Ma has made numerous speeches at economic and industry forums and visited a large number of domestic cities to promote green finance. He has also published dozens of books and research reports on the achievements of domestic financial institutions in the field of green finance, as well as the constraints facing the sector.
Using his own experience of working with financial institutions inside and outside China, Ma has encouraged domestic government agencies and banks to work with global organizations such as the IFC and Climate Bonds Initiative to adopt international best practices in green finance.
As chairman of the Group of 20’s newly formed green-finance study group, he spoke at the G20 summit in the eastern city of Hangzhou last year about China’s experience in embracing green finance and the challenges it faces globally, in a bid to drum up support at home and abroad for this exciting new field.