How Investors Adapt to the New Financial Market
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 Regulations for Asset Management) has been officially implemented this year.
This means that the capital-guaranteed and interest-guaranteed wealth management products that investors were familiar with before have officially withdrawn from the historical stage, comprehensive net worth products will become the main theme of the asset management industry, and investors will also usher in more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 payment and adopting the market value method for valuation, what changes will be brought about by fully net worth products?
What are the implications for investors?
How should investors better adapt to the new financial market?
The Economic Daily reporter interviewed a number of industry insiders.
Build risk awareness
The new regulations on asset management were officially released in April 2018. They set requirements in terms of investment scope, leverage constraints, and information disclosure. They aim to prevent financial risks, enhance the ability of financial services to serve the real economy, and minimize regulatory arbitrage space and potential. Promote the 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 "principal and interest guarantee" and "zero risk" promised by banks' wealth management products have become the past tense.
As the main body of the transformation and development of the domestic asset management industry, the transformation of bank wealth management products is closely related to the vital interests of the majority of investors.
According to data released by the Banking Wealth Management Registration and Custody Center, as of the end of September last year, the number of investors holding wealth management products (only the wealth management products issued after October 1, 2018) reached 71.2571 million, of which individual investors reached 7096.84 Ten thousand people, accounting for 99.59%.
Before the introduction of the new asset management regulations, many of my country's bank wealth management products are expected-return products (guaranteed capital), which is characterized by the fact that regardless of whether the bank's investment results are profitable or not, after the product expires, it will be based on the rate of return promised by investors when purchasing the product. Payment of proceeds to investors.
Under the requirements of the new asset management regulations, net worth wealth management products no longer have a fixed rate of return, and investors bear part of the risk themselves and are responsible for their own profits and losses.
This means that investors who are accustomed to the "stable happiness" of bank capital-guaranteed wealth management must abandon the concept of capital-guaranteed and interest-guaranteed wealth management, and establish risk awareness as soon as possible in order to adapt to the new market, new rules, and new products. .
Wang Yifeng, chief analyst of the financial industry of Everbright Securities, told reporters that for investors, capital-guaranteed wealth management products no longer exist, which will help their investment behaviors better adapt to their real risk preferences.
In the past fund pool mode, investors with different risk preferences obtained the same expected returns, and the product returns did not truly correspond to their actual risk tolerance, and some investors with higher risk tolerance actually gave up the possibility of obtaining higher returns; at the same time, Pooling operations cannot cut risks across time, and there are potential credit risks and liquidity risks.
After the net worth of wealth management operation, the product income reflects the actual performance of the asset side, and investors can better choose products that meet their investment demands.
"It is the general trend for the asset management industry to break the rigid payment, and investors cannot blindly pursue returns." Yuan Jiwei, an asset management researcher, told reporters that in the future, investors will face more complicated investment and financial decisions, and some investors with low risk appetite may return to Deposits, other investors may re-select some low-risk financial products.
In short, investors need to better understand the characteristics of wealth management products and buy products that are in line with their risk appetite.
Regarding the changes in the product side of the bank's wealth management market in the future, Chen Xuehua, a researcher at Puyi Standard, believes that investors who purchase bank wealth management products have a relatively lower risk appetite than buyers of other wealth management products, so fixed income products with lower risks are It is expected to be more favored by investors. At the same time, "fixed income +" products invest part of their assets in equity products to increase product returns. Therefore, under the condition of controllable risks, such products are relatively better than pure fixed income products. will be more popular.
In addition, innovative products will also be sought after by investors. For example, the previously released REITs-themed and pension-themed wealth management products are highly sought after by investors. As the operation of bank wealth management products is aligned with public funds, the types of products they issue are also will continue to enrich.
Asset management institutions compete on the same stage
my country's asset management industry has a wide range of participants. After the official implementation of the new asset management regulations, the asset scale of institutions including banks, funds, trusts, insurance asset management and other institutions is expected to further expand. Various asset management institutions will compete on the same stage. How to use their own characteristics to win Investors and good service for investors have also become a must-answer question for various asset management institutions to develop their businesses in the future.
Industry insiders pointed out that with the completion of net worth transformation of various institutions, institutions with active management advantages will have stronger competitive advantages. Among them, bank wealth management subsidiaries and public funds with outstanding product design and asset allocation capabilities are expected to stand out.
According to the "2020 National Public Fund Investor Status Survey Report" previously released by the China Foundation Association, among the surveyed population, the main sources of funds for individual investors to invest in public funds are "transfer from deposits" and "new income". 76.3% and 74.5% of investors meet this option respectively; "transfer from bank wealth management products" and "transfer from stock" are the second choices, with 37.6% and 35.8% of investors choosing respectively, which shows that public funds are gradually favored by investors.
Shen Rong, director of the fixed income and low-risk investment department of Everbright Prudential, said that from the perspective of public funds, due to the high acceptance of NAV products by its investors and the relatively complete investor education, the impact of NAV transformation on the scale of public funds will be It is relatively small, coupled with the publicity of public funds by Internet sales platforms in recent years, the customer base of public funds has further expanded.
In the future, public funds will continue to take advantage of their standardized operation, mature investment research system, and relatively prominent investment research strength to 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 for fund products. For investors, investing in public offering products is more transparent and standardized, but at the same time, it requires investors to have professional knowledge. It is also relatively high and will test investors in terms of fund selection and underlying asset analysis." Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank, pointed out.
Of course, as the "main force" of the asset management market for many years, bank wealth management products are still attractive.
Liu Tao, vice president of Zhixin Investment Research Institute, believes that bank wealth management products are generally stable, with low entry barriers, 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 have It is also continuously enhancing its own investment and research capabilities, or cooperating with external professional investment advisors. Since it mainly focuses on low-risk financial products and mainly fixed-income products, the security of the asset target is higher, and the volatility of its product returns is generally controllable. .
In the face of many asset management institutions, how should investors choose?
Yuan Jiwei said that for ordinary investors, they should choose asset management products according to the professional advantages of institutions. For example, bank wealth management has always been very stable, and it is more suitable for investors with lower risk appetite; public funds have stronger investment and research capabilities, and they have stronger investment and research capabilities in equity assets. If you want to allocate equity assets, you can buy public funds; private funds, trusts, etc. are private products with high thresholds, which are mainly suitable for high net worth customers.
Strengthen investor education
With the implementation of the new regulations on asset management, the types of financial products will become more abundant, the structure will become more complex, and the way of product presentation will become more professional, which puts forward higher requirements for the professional ability of ordinary investors in financial management. Education work is imminent.
On September 30 last year, the Ministry of Finance issued the "Regulations on the Accounting Treatment of Asset Management Products (Draft for Comment)", clarifying the accounting treatment of asset management products, and will strictly implement the new financial instrument standards (IFRS9).
The new regulation has been officially implemented since January 1 this year. It uniformly regulates the valuation methods of various asset management products, and further promotes the process of shifting from the amortized cost method to the market value method.
"Under the amortized cost method used for product valuation before, the premium and discount of the underlying assets of wealth management products will be amortized on average during the remaining period and the income will be accrued daily. Therefore, the net value curve of wealth management products is relatively smooth, but not real-time. It reflects the income performance of the underlying assets. Today, products using the market value method fluctuate with the net value of the investment target, which more truly reflects market changes and can fully show investors the risk of the product’s net value.” Chen Xuehua pointed out.
For investors who used to choose products based on expected returns, how should they choose net worth wealth management products now?
Chen Xuehua said that, first of all, investors can look at the performance comparison benchmark of wealth management products, which is the center of measuring the performance of the product within a certain period, usually with indicators such as 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 worth trend of wealth management products. The investment goal of a good net worth wealth management product is more “stable”, and its net worth curve generally shows a steady upward trend; finally, there is no historical performance when new products are released. For comparison, 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 potential fluctuations in net worth will also increase. It does not even rule out the possibility that some products may break net in stages, 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 Gangdui culture has not been completely eliminated.” Wang Yifeng said frankly.
Wang Yifeng further suggested to investors: when faced with more choices, investors should choose products that match their risk tolerance according to their risk appetite; at the same time, the current management of wealth management product sales is more standardized, and benchmarks for product attributes and performance comparisons should be made. Investors should carefully understand the relevant product information before purchasing; in addition, for some low-risk investors, if they really have a strong demand for principal-guaranteed products, they may consider switching to time deposits, large-denomination certificates of deposit, etc. instead product.