Ji'an Jinxin Fund Evaluation Center's statistical data shows that since the implementation of the new regulations on asset management, bank wealth management has performed much better than public funds in creating profits for investors. Bank wealth management has achieved positive returns annually, while public funds have suffered consecutive losses for two years in 2022 and 2023: In 2022, bank wealth management earned 880 billion yuan for investors, while public funds lost 1478.365 billion yuan for investors; in 2023, bank wealth management earned 698.1 billion yuan for investors, while public funds lost 427.292 billion yuan for investors; in the first half of 2024, bank wealth management earned 341.3 billion yuan for investors, while public funds earned 57.213 billion yuan for investors.

Why has the scale of profitable bank wealth management been surpassed by that of loss-making public funds? This is a structural issue. The data above shows that from 2022 to the first half of 2024, the total scale of pure bond funds and money market funds of public funds increased by 4.86 trillion yuan, accounting for 96.24% of the total increase of 5.05 trillion yuan of all public funds. These two types of products are exactly the main force for public funds to earn money for investors in the context of the continuous downturn of the equity market in 2022. Data from Ji'an Jinxin Fund Evaluation Center shows that pure bond funds earned a total of 132.243 billion yuan in 2022, 221.763 billion yuan in 2023, and 166.589 billion yuan in the first half of 2024; money market funds earned 202.017 billion yuan in 2022, 232.687 billion yuan in 2023, and 123.348 billion yuan in the first half of 2024.

Advertisement

In 2022, public funds earned 334.26 billion yuan for investors relying on 5.84 trillion yuan of pure bond funds and 10.42 trillion yuan of money market funds; in 2023, they earned 454.45 billion yuan for investors relying on 7.17 trillion yuan of pure bond funds and 11.44 trillion yuan; in the first half of 2024, they earned 289.937 billion yuan for investors relying on 7.93 trillion yuan of pure bond funds and 13.19 trillion yuan of money market funds. Pure bond funds and money market funds in public funds have taken on the heavy responsibility of earning ability for public funds, achieving a virtuous cycle of performance and scale. If compared with the return rates of various products of bank wealth management and public funds since 2022, it also confirms this result. The fixed income products, which account for the largest proportion of bank wealth management scale, had an average return of 1.41% in 2022, 3.28% in 2023, and 1.78% in the first half of 2024; in contrast, the performance of pure bond funds of public funds is more outstanding: the average return was 2.05% in 2022, 3.62% in 2023, and 2.3% in the first half of 2024. Benefiting from the bull market of the bond market, the performance of pure bond funds is better than that of fixed income products of bank wealth management, and naturally, it has won the favor of investors, with the scale rising.

It is worth noting that in the performance comparison between cash management products of bank wealth management and money market funds of public funds, the average performance of cash management products of bank wealth management was overtaken by the money market funds of public funds in the first half of 2024. According to data from Ji'an Jinxin Fund Evaluation Center, the average performance of cash management products of bank wealth management was higher than the average return of money market funds in both 2022 and 2023, but in the first half of 2024, cash management products of bank wealth management achieved an average return of 0.87%, which was lower than the average return of 0.95% of money market funds of public funds. This also explains the reason why the scale of money market funds increased by 1.75 trillion yuan in the first half of 2024, with a growth rate of 15.3%.

Is the fixed income management level of bank wealth management inferior to that of public funds? This issue is very complex, and it is obviously not simple to make a conclusion based on data, so it will not be discussed in depth here.

In addition, the average return rate of mixed and equity wealth management products of wealth management companies is better than that of public funds, but the proportion of these two types of products in the scale of bank wealth management is very small and can be ignored. However, these two types of products account for a high proportion in public funds, but they have caused significant losses for investors in 2022 and 2023, which is the main reason for investors to criticize public funds.