In 2020，as affected by COVID-19，the average economic growth rate of China’s special economic zones experienced a cliff-like decline that is rarely seen in history，which brought an obvious negative impact on the development quality of the financial industry in the special economic zones. However，the good news is that the growth rate of the financial industries in the SEZs was not in line with the economic growth rates. Whether it is analyzed either from external perspective or from internal perspective，2021 will be a year of opportunities and challenges for the development of the financial industries in the SEZs. Based on the basic development trend of the financial industries in the SEZs in 2020，and faced with the opportunities and challenges for the financial industries in 2021，we propose that for the development of the financial industries in the SEZs in 2021，measures should be adopted to “maintain scale，make up for weakness，recover vitality，and practice internal strength”.