After the "new asset management regulations", bank wealth management products have crossed the threshold of net worth transformation, but they have faced more severe challenges.
Since the beginning of this year, the stock market and bond market have undergone adjustments, the net value of bank wealth management products has withdrawn sharply, the number of investor complaints has surged, and the wave of redemption has become the norm.
This really gave investors a "shock". Many investors directly complained that they were seriously injured by "financial assassins", and they felt like buying stocks after buying financial management.
Since its establishment, wealth management companies have gone through more than three years of development. Under the requirements of net worth transformation, the requirements for investment research capabilities, risk management capabilities, and operational management capabilities are far greater than before.
It remains to be seen how wealth management companies will improve their investment research capabilities and continue to cultivate customers in the future.
"Financial Assassin" Seriously Hurts Investors
"504 days of financial management, I lost more than 70,000!" A few days ago, Yang Nuo (pseudonym) redeemed the expired financial products, invested more than 500 days, and the principal was 2 million yuan. Up to 70,000 yuan.
For a long time, Yang Nuo has been a loyal customer of the bank's wealth management products. Since she first came into contact with the products, her wealth management journey has gone through more than three years.
Before 2018, wealth management products guaranteed capital and income, and had high security. After the release of the "New Regulations on Asset Management" on April 27, 2018, the asset management industry gradually transformed to "breaking rigid exchange and returning to the original source", reflecting the impact of wealth management. From the perspective of products, the gains and losses of the products must be borne by investors themselves.
Although this needs to be adapted to investors who are used to "guaranteeing principal and income", when he first entered the wealth management market, Yang Nuo was well aware of the new changes in the wealth management market and was ready to take risks on his own.
However, what she never imagined was that the amount of losses after investing for more than a year has far exceeded her psychological preparation.
What are the reasons for investors' losses?
Why is the loss amount so high?
A reporter from Beijing Business Daily restored the entire process of the incident through investigation.
In July 2021, under the recommendation of the account manager, Yang Nuo purchased a closed-end wealth management product called "ICBC Wealth Management·Quanxin Equity Private Bank Exclusive Hybrid Closed Wealth Management Product (21HH3832)" issued by ICBC Wealth Management (hereinafter "21HH3832" for short), the risk rating of this product is PR3, the income type is non-guaranteed floating income, the product establishment date is July 6, 2021, and the product maturity date is November 21, 2022.
The "21HH3832" 2022 semi-annual report data provided by investors shows that the net share value of the product at the end of the reporting period was 0.9792, the net asset value was 888891237.44, and the annualized rate of return during the reporting period was -6.73%.
ICBC Wealth Management also explained the reasons for the poor earnings performance in the review of market conditions and product operations. The company stated that from January to April this year, under the interweaving influence of various factors at home and abroad, the stock market experienced Relatively obvious adjustments; from May to June, the influence of the above factors on the market was marginally weakened, and the market rebounded to a certain extent.
"Based on the close tracking and analysis of multiple dimensions such as macro, policy, capital, and emotion, combined with the asset allocation model of major categories, timely optimize the asset allocation ratio, and use financial instruments to hedge market risks and reduce product net value fluctuations .” said ICBC Wealth Management.
Talking about the loss of wealth management products, Yu Baicheng, president of Zero One Research Institute, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that net value wealth management products are floating income wealth management products displayed in the form of net value, and the assets invested in the products are measured at fair value. net worth.
After the net value transformation of bank wealth management products, this year encountered a double kill of stocks and debts, and the net value of the products appeared to be broken in a large area. This has never happened in the field of bank wealth management in the past, which has caused investors' worries, disappointments, doubts and even complaints. and disputes.
However, Yang Nuo did not agree with the statement of the financial management company. She believed that the reason for the relatively large losses of financial management products was the poor asset allocation ability of the financial management company.
Asset allocation leads to controversy
To explore the truth behind the "financial assassin", we must first understand what equity assets are.
Equity assets include stocks, stock-type open-end funds, sunshine private equity products, stock index futures, etc. Among them, the most typical equity assets are common stocks and funds.
The "21HH3832" product purchased by Yang Nuo also allocated equity assets.
The product contract information shows that "21HH3832" equity assets are mainly stock funds, ETFs, other public offering funds, and other equity assets that meet regulatory requirements, and the investment ratio is 0-35%.
The "21HH3832" 2021 Four Seasons Report data shows that the asset types of this product mainly include fixed income, equity, commodities and financial derivatives, and funds, of which fixed income accounts for 55.17%, and equity accounts for 5.94%. %, mainly invested in stock assets, commodities and financial derivatives, accounting for 0.01%, and public funds accounted for 38.87%.
Yang Nuo believes that wealth management companies have insufficient asset allocation capabilities, and long-term holding of poorly performing asset management plans directly leads to losses in wealth management products.
According to the letter information, the details of the investment assets of "21HH3832" products are mainly: China Merchants Asset Management Hengli No. 1 Collective Asset Management Plan, Zhongjin Zengli No. 1 Collective Asset Management Plan, CITIC VIP No. 7-ICBC, Shenwan Hongyuan Wanli Zengxiang No. 1 Collection Asset management plans, demand deposits.
As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the investment proportions of the first two asset management plans are 54.53% and 26.3% respectively.
"The market performance of CICC Zengli No. 1 collective asset management plan is not good. Why do wealth management companies hold such poorly performing products for a long time? Why didn't they adjust their investment strategies in time?" Yang Nuo questioned.
According to data from the private equity ranking network, the CICC Zengli No. 1 collective asset management plan was established on July 5, 2019. Since its establishment, the rate of return has been 8.21%. Since the beginning of this year (as of November 30), the rate of return has been -11.03%. Among the 3463 products, 3325 ranked at the bottom.
"When I was inquiring about the product, I made it clear to the account manager that I would refuse to buy products such as CICC with high expected returns but high risks. The account manager listened to my needs and recommended '21HH3832' to me. I went to the bank's self-operated wealth management products, but it turned out that among the recommended purchases of '21HH3832', except for less than 5% of current deposits, the remaining large proportion of asset management plans were not self-operated by the bank's wealth management company." Yang Noah recalled.
A reporter from Beijing Business Daily sent an interview outline to ICBC Wealth Management regarding the underlying asset allocation of "21HH3832", the reasons for long-term investment in "Zhongjin Zengli No. 1 Collective Asset Management Plan" and how to prevent some risks in private equity or asset management plans in the future. As of press time, no reply has been received.
A person familiar with the matter said that general wealth management companies will set up SPV (special purpose vehicle), and use SPV as a vehicle to invest in various bonds and asset management plans. The reason for this operation is that it is very difficult to manage products alone. To operate repeatedly, it is relatively simple to set up SPV. First, the concentration will not exceed the standard, and second, it can effectively solve the liquidity redemption problem, and the product income performance is relatively stable. This is also a common operation in the industry.
However, the person also pointed out that the current lack of investment and research capabilities of wealth management companies is indeed a big problem. From the perspective of investment, bank wealth management has more experience in bond market investment, but equity is still a shortcoming. The ability to study is relatively poor, and it is actually in a "blank area".
The level of investment research is still insufficient
From being approved to opening, the wealth management company has gone through more than three years of development.
As a "new force" in the asset management market, wealth management companies are still in the exploratory period at present, and face many problems in investment research, operation management, and coordination with the parent bank. Configuration capabilities also need to be improved.
In the early days of wealth management companies, fixed-income products were generally used as the mainstream of issuance at that time. However, with the reduction of stock wealth management since the "New Asset Management Regulations", out of the consideration of stabilizing the scale, hedging the risk of falling in a single market, and satisfying high-risk customers The investment value of the bank's wealth management equity market is constantly emerging, and wealth management companies are paying more and more attention to the allocation of equity assets.
A reporter from the Beijing Business Daily found that in terms of the allocation of equity wealth management products, some wealth management companies also tend to use preferred stocks as the bottom position of equity, and then allocate various public funds to obtain low volatility and stable returns. scarcity.
Zhou Maohua, a macro researcher at the Financial Market Department of China Everbright Bank, emphasized that the diversification of the underlying asset allocation of wealth management products mainly meets the risk and income preferences of different investors. There is more space.
In the future, wealth management companies need to strengthen investment research capabilities and improve potential risk prediction.
"A good allocation of equity assets requires a wealth management company to have high investment and research capabilities." A person from a wealth management company reminded, for example, to improve the judgment of market trends; risk control capabilities can reasonably control the retracement and large asset allocation ability.
According to Liu Yinping, an analyst at Rong 360 Digital Technology Research Institute, wealth management companies need to continue to improve their investment research level, tap high-quality assets and manage asset portfolios in a refined manner.
At the same time, strengthen the risk protection mechanism to prevent large fluctuations in the net value of products; on the other hand, it is necessary to improve information disclosure, so that customers can fully understand the information of products, and slow down the pace of equity investment and make steady progress.
In addition, it is undeniable that compared with underlying assets such as bonds, equity assets are more volatile, and their net value fluctuates greatly when the market fluctuates. Therefore, investors generally do not accept equity assets. It's not "solid" enough.
During the investigation, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily noticed that when financial managers first contact investors, they do not actively recommend the allocation of equity assets, but prefer to recommend fixed-income financial products.
Liu Yinping said bluntly that the education of investors by wealth management companies was relatively simple before, mainly talking about the reasons for the fluctuation of the income of net worth wealth management products and suggesting investors to hold them for a long time, but did not explain in detail the asset allocation of wealth management products, which caused some investors The understanding of wealth management products is not comprehensive enough. It is not a big problem when the net value of the product rises. Once the net value of the product falls, conflicts and disputes between investors and wealth management companies are prone to arise.
Therefore, wealth management companies need more in-depth and detailed explanations in product promotion, information disclosure, asset allocation, etc. When investors buy wealth management products, especially medium and high-risk products, wealth management companies must fully disclose product risks and recommend risk-matching products to investors. Financial product.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Song Yitong