China's wealth management products total $1.6t

BEIJING - China's outstanding wealth management products totaled 9.92 trillion yuan ($1.63 trillion) as of the end of September, according to an industry report released on Friday.

These products accounted for the biggest share of the Chinese asset management market, said the report from the China Banking Association.

The figure has more than doubled from 4.59 trillion yuan at the end of 2011, and is up from 7.1 trillion yuan at the end of 2012, previous data showed.

The wealth management businesses of Chinese banks and financial institutions have been growing quickly in recent years as customers seek higher returns in the face of limited investment channels and high inflation.

Industry figures showed that there is a margin of roughly one percentage point in returns between wealth management products and bank deposits with similar tenors.

The report said average yields of wealth management products in China stood at 4 percent to 4.5 percent.

In response to Friday's figures, Yang Xiaojun, deputy director of the Banking Supervision Department of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), urged banks to strike a balance between financial innovation and risk management.

Banks and financial institutions should put investors' interests at the forefront when doing wealth management businesses, Yang said.

Problems with wealth offerings have emerged in the past couple of years with some products failing to pay returns or delaying payments.

China tightened regulations over the sector this year by limiting the portion of wealth management money invested in non-standard assets, in an effort to enhance the transparency of wealth management plans' capital flows and reduce default risks.

Non-standard assets, which are not traded on the inter-bank market or stock exchanges, include trust loans, acceptance bills, letters of credit, accounts receivable and other credit products, according to the CBRC.