China's asset management industry slows expansion amid tightened regulation

BEIJING - China's asset management businesses expanded at a slower rate in the first nine months of the year amid tightened regulation, according to industry data.

Assets under management totaled 54.09 trillion yuan ($8.25 trillion) as of Sept 10, up 4.9 percent from the end of 2016, according to the self-regulated Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) on Tuesday.

In 2016, the annual growth rate of asset management businesses was more than 30 percent.

Compared with the end of 2016, the scale of publicly offered funds went up 22.3 percent to 11.2 trillion yuan, while the scale of private investment funds went up 31.2 percent to 10.25 trillion yuan.

During the same period, asset management businesses of fund subsidiaries shrank 24.7 percent while those of futures companies went down 24.3 percent.

The slower growth came as authorities stepped up efforts to contain risks arising from wealth management products, with major financial regulatory bodies rolling out policies to identify and punish illegal activities.

According to Hong Lei, head of AMAC, while the tightened regulation gradually takes effect, there are still issues which need to be solved, such as growing liquidity risks in asset management products.