A court specializing in hearing finance-related lawsuits was established in Beijing on Thursday morning.

The Beijing Financial Court aims to improve the handling of monetary disputes in China's legal system, prevent financial risks, strengthen supervision over related institutions and increase the country's international influence on the global financial judiciary, according to An Fengde, vice-president of the Beijing High People's Court.

"Beijing was selected as the court's location because the capital is our nation's financial management center and is home to many international financial institutions, supervision departments and related infrastructure," he said at a news conference on Thursday.

The court is intermediate level, mainly covering finance-related civil and administrative disputes citywide involving securities, insurance, bank cards and financial loan contracts, among others.

Appeals against the court's verdicts will need to be made to the Beijing High People's Court.

The establishment of the financial court is to meet the central leadership's requirement on serving the country's financial strategy, creating a sound legal environment and promoting healthy development of economy, An said.

It is the second court of its kind to be established in China. The first was the Shanghai Financial Court, which opened in 2018.