China Asset Management Report 2022

October 18, 2023

Total AUM by the members of Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) stood at RMB68 trillion, or US$10.79 trillion, at the end of 2021. By our estimates, China now is the world’s fourth largest asset management market, after the US, Luxembourg, and Ireland. It is also the second largest onshore market, next only to the US. AMAC lists fund management companies (FMC), registered private fund managers (PFM) and securities companies as its members, but does not account for sub-scale PFMs. Neither does it include the third-party assets managed by insurance asset management companies (AMC), pension insurers, wealth management companies (WMC) or trust companies. If these assets are included, then the size of China’s asset management industry is closer to RMB100 trillion, or US$16 trillion.

Compared with 2020, industry’s AUM has grown by 15.25%, the fastest in 6 years. Most of the growth was achieved on the back of sustained demand for mutual funds and private funds, as well as the capital appreciation of equity-centric products.

Mutual fund products claim the lion’s share of the industry. At RMB25.3 trillion, the sector accounts for 37.2% of the industry’s total AUM and is the largest pillar. This is also one of the fastest growing sectors, with a 27.1% year-on-year growth, and a 5-year CAGR of 22.5%. More impressive than the AUM growth, is the growth of the management fee. The total fee collected by FMC stood at RMB92.4 billion in 2020 and RMB135.2 billion in 2021. This represents a 11.83 % CAGR from the RMB30.2 billion in 2010.

FMC manage the most mutual fund products, though a growing list of companies, including securities firms, private fund managers and insurance asset managers, now offer mutual fund products too.

While retail investors in China usually access professional asset management through mutual fund products, private funds are mainly bought by high-net-worth individual investors, and occasionally institutions. PFM collectively reported a total AUM of RMB19.8 trillion upon the end of 2021 and were the second largest pillar of the onshore industry, with a 5-year CAGR of 20%. The PE/VC funds are the largest subsector of private funds, with a year-end AUM of RMB12.8 trillion. It is followed by private securities funds, which mostly invest in the secondary market.