Our reporter Ma Chunyang
After a transition period of more than three years, the Guiding Opinions on Regulating the Asset Management Business of Financial Institutions (hereinafter referred to as the new asset management regulations) has been formally implemented this year. This means that the wealth management products that investors used to be familiar with have officially withdrawn from the historical stage, and the comprehensive net worth products will become the main theme of the asset management industry, and investors will also usher in more choices and return space.
Breaking the rigid redemption and adopting the market value method for valuation, what changes will the all-net-worth products bring? What is the impact on investors? How can investors better adapt to the new financial market? The Economic Daily reporter interviewed a number of people in the industry.
Establish risk awareness
The new asset management regulations were officially released in April, 20 18, and made requirements in investment scope, leverage constraints, information disclosure and so on. It aims to prevent financial risks, enhance the ability of financial services to the real economy, eliminate regulatory arbitrage space to the maximum extent, and promote structural reform of the financial supply side.
From the perspective of investors, the core content of the new asset management regulations is to break the "rigid redemption". In the past, the promise of bank wealth management products similar to "guaranteed capital and interest" and "zero risk" has become a thing of the past.
As the main body of the transformation and development of domestic asset management industry, the transformation of bank wealth management products is closely related to the vital interests of investors. According to the data released by the Banking Financial Registration and Custody Center, as of the end of September last year, the number of investors holding wealth management products (only counting wealth management products issued after 20 18 10 1) reached 7 1257 1000, of which 7,096,840 were individual investors.
Before the introduction of the new asset management regulations, many domestic bank wealth management products were expected-income products (guaranteed-capital products), which were characterized by the fact that no matter whether the investment results of banks were profitable or not, after the products expired, they would be paid according to the promised rate of return when investors bought the products. Under the requirements of the new asset management regulations, net worth wealth management products no longer have a fixed rate of return, and investors themselves bear part of the risks and are responsible for their own profits and losses.
This means that investors who are accustomed to the "stable and happy" financial management of banks must abandon the concept of financial management that once guaranteed capital and interest, and establish risk awareness as soon as possible to adapt to new markets, new rules and new products.
Yif Wang, chief analyst of the financial industry of Everbright Securities, told the reporter that for investors, capital-guaranteed wealth management products no longer exist, which will help their investment behavior to better adapt to real risk preferences. In the past, under the fund pool model, investors with different risk preferences obtained the same expected returns, and the product returns did not really correspond to their actual risk tolerance. Some investors with higher risk tolerance have actually given up the possibility of obtaining higher returns. At the same time, the fund pool operation cannot cut risks across periods, and there are potential credit risks and liquidity risks. After the net operation of financial management, the product income maps the actual performance of the asset side, and investors can better choose products that meet their own investment demands.
"It is the general trend for the asset management industry to break the rigid redemption, and investors cannot blindly pursue income." Yuan Jiwei, an asset management researcher, told reporters that the investment and financial management decisions faced by investors in the future will be more complicated. Some investors with low risk preference may return to deposits, while others may re-select some low-risk wealth management products. In short, investors need to better understand the characteristics of wealth management products and buy products that meet their own risk preferences.
Regarding the changes in the product end of the bank wealth management market in the future, Chen Xuehua, a researcher at Puyi Standard, believes that investors who buy bank wealth management products have relatively low risk preference compared with buyers of other wealth management products, so fixed-income products with lower risk are expected to be more favored by investors. At the same time, "fixed income+"products will be more popular than pure fixed income products, because some assets are invested in equity products, which increases product income, so in the case of controllable risks. In addition, innovative products will also be sought after by investors. For example, the previously released REITs-themed wealth management products and pension-themed wealth management products are very popular with investors. With the docking of bank wealth management products with Public Offering of Fund, the types of products issued will be continuously enriched.
Asset management institutions compete on the same stage.
There are many participants in China's asset management industry. After the formal implementation of the new asset management regulations, the scale of institutional assets including banks, funds, trusts and insurance asset management is expected to further expand. All kinds of asset management institutions will compete on the same stage. How to win and serve investors with their own characteristics has become a compulsory topic for all kinds of asset management institutions in the exhibition industry.
Insiders pointed out that with the completion of the transformation of institutions' net worth, the institutions with active management advantages have stronger competitive advantages, among which the bank financial subsidiary and Public Offering of Fund, which have outstanding product design and asset allocation capabilities, are expected to stand out.
According to the Survey Report on Investors in Public Offering of Fund in 2020 released by the China Foundation, among the people surveyed, the main sources of funds for individual investors to invest in Public Offering of Fund are "deposit transfer" and "new income", with 76.3% and 74.5% investors meeting this option respectively; "Bank wealth management product transfer" and "stock transfer" are the second choices, with 37.6% and 35.8% of investors choosing them respectively, which shows that Public Offering of Fund is gradually being favored by investors.
Shen Rong, director of low-risk investment department of Everbright Prudential, said that from the perspective of Public Offering of Fund, because its investors have higher acceptance of net-worth products and better education for investors, the impact of net-worth on the scale of Public Offering of Fund will be smaller, and the promotion of Internet sales platforms to Public Offering of Fund in recent years has further expanded the customer base of Public Offering of Fund. In the future, Public Offering of Fund will continue to give full play to its advantages of standardized operation, mature investment and research system and relatively outstanding investment and research strength, and provide investors with more professional and standardized asset management services.
"The new asset management regulations regulate the concentration of investment assets, investment scope, product classification and product pledge financing of fund products. For investors, investing in public offerings is more transparent and standardized, but at the same time, the requirements for investors' professional knowledge are relatively high, which will test investors in fund selection and underlying asset analysis. " Everbright Bank analyst Zhou pointed out.
Of course, as the "main force" of the asset management market for many years, bank wealth management products are still attractive. Tamia Liu, vice president of Trust Investment Research Institute, believes that bank wealth management products are generally stable, with low barriers to entry, offline sales channels are more friendly to middle-aged and elderly customers, and customer groups are more sticky. At the same time, in recent years, some large and medium-sized banks are also constantly strengthening their investment and research capabilities, or cooperating with external professional investment. Because they are mainly low-risk wealth management products, and mainly fixed-income products, the security of asset targets is high, and the volatility of their product income is generally controllable.
In the face of numerous asset management institutions, how should investors choose? Yuan Jiwei said that for ordinary investors, asset management products should be selected according to the professional advantages of institutions, such as bank wealth management, which has always been very stable and is more suitable for investors with low risk appetite; Public Offering of Fund has stronger investment and research ability and more professional control over equity assets. If you want to allocate equity assets, you can buy Public Offering of Fund; Private equity funds, trusts, etc. They are all high-threshold private equity products, mainly suitable for high-net-worth customers.
Strengthen investor education
With the implementation of the new asset management regulations, the types of wealth management products will be more abundant, the structure will be more complex, and the product display methods will be more professional, which puts higher demands on the financial professional ability of ordinary investors. In this context, it is urgent to strengthen investor education.
On September 30th last year, the Ministry of Finance issued "Provisions on Accounting Treatment of Asset Management Products (Draft for Comment)", which clarified the accounting treatment of asset management products and will strictly implement the new financial instrument standards (IFRS9). This new regulation has been officially implemented since June 65438+ 10/day this year, unifying and standardizing the valuation methods of various asset management products, and further promoting the process of changing from amortized cost method to market value method.
"In the previous product valuation, amortized cost method was usually used. The premium and discount of the basic assets of wealth management products are amortized evenly within the remaining term, and the income is accrued daily. Therefore, the net value curve of wealth management products is relatively smooth, but it does not reflect the income performance of the underlying assets in real time. Nowadays, products using the market value method fluctuate with the net value of the investment target, which more truly reflects the changes in the market and can fully show the net value risk of the products to investors. " Chen Xuehua pointed out.
For investors who used to choose products through expected rate of return, how should they choose net worth wealth management products now? Chen Xuehua said, first of all, investors can look at the performance benchmark of wealth management products, which is the center to measure the performance of products in a certain period of time, usually based on the annualized rate of return since its establishment and the annualized rate of return in the past three months; Secondly, investors can also check the net value trend of wealth management products. The investment target of good net worth wealth management products is more "stable", and its net worth curve generally shows a steady upward trend; Finally, when new products are released, there is no historical performance comparison, and investors can also refer to the performance comparison benchmark to judge the income target.
"The transformation of wealth management products from expected return to net worth operation means more real risk-return feedback for investors, and the potential net worth fluctuation will also increase. Even the possibility of individual products breaking the net in stages is not ruled out, and the investment experience may be affected. For banks, investor education has become an important prerequisite to ensure the smooth implementation of the new asset management regulations when the on-the-job team culture has not been completely broken. " Yif Wang said frankly.
Yif Wang further suggested to investors: when faced with more multiple choices, investors should combine their own risk preferences and choose products that match their risk tolerance; At the same time, the current sales management of wealth management products is more standardized, and the information disclosure of product attributes and performance benchmarks is more perfect. Investors should carefully understand the relevant product information before buying; In addition, for some investors with low risk preference, if there is a strong demand for capital preservation products, they can consider switching to alternative products such as time deposits and certificates of deposit.