The first issue that the new Chinese Asset Management Association of Hong Kong is taking on is the mainland government’s strategy of opening its financial services sector to foreign companies, the South China Morning Post has reported.
According to the Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper, the new association was formed in mid-July, “shortly after the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the mainland’s top securities watchdog, announced it would expand the renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) scheme to encompass additional players, possibly asset managers from Taiwan, Singapore and Britain”.
The RQFII was launched in December 2011 to allow a small number of Chinese asset managers to establish renminbi-denominated investment products in Hong Kong, for investment in the mainland. Restrictions were imposed from the outset, but the authorities have responded to enthusiasm for the scheme by widening it to include international banks and asset managers with a presence in Hong Kong.
It is this that “has caused concern” among some mainland financial institutions, the SCMP noted.
The SCMP did not quote any individuals by name, but it said that Ding Chen, the chief executive of CSOP Asset Management, was the new association’s “founding chairman”. There are another 22 founding members in addition to him, “including some of the mainland’s biggest fund houses, such as…China Asset Management, E Fund Management and Haitong Asset Management”, all of which have offices in Hong Kong, the SCMP said.
To read the SCMP’s story, click here.
