In a narrow sense, fund companies only refer to fund management companies (Public Offering of Fund companies) that can engage in securities investment fund management business with the approval of the CSRC; Broadly speaking, fund companies are divided into Public Offering of Fund companies and private fund companies. Public Offering of Fund's business and personnel activities are supervised by the CSRC, and its employees belong to the fund industry; Private equity fund companies are not regulated (the new fund law may bring private equity funds under the supervision of the CSRC).

From the organizational form, fund companies are divided into corporate fund companies and limited partnership fund companies. In practice, all Public Offering of Fund companies are corporate fund companies, and private fund companies adopt both corporate system and limited partnership system.