FSA analysed Morningstar fund flows data to paint a picture of China’s mutual fund market at the end of 2017.
The AUM of mutual funds grew 32.5% to RMB 10.67trn ($1.69trn) from RMB 8.05trn at the end of 2016.
China mutual fund AUM (RMB)
| Category | December 2016 | December 2017 |
| Money market | 4.32trn | 6.74trn |
| Allocation (mixed asset) | 1.65trn | 1.76trn |
| Fixed income | 1.24trn | 1.31trn |
| Equity | 440bn | 540bn |
| Other | 397bn | 316bn |
Data: Morningstar, 31 December 2017
Note: December 2017 data for around 3% of funds (by AUM) is not available at this time. FSA used the most recent values available.
Money market funds grew by 56% during the same period and now constitute 63% of the assets. They were the only category of funds that saw significant net new inflows in 2017.
The biggest of them, the Tianhong Yuebao, with RMB 1.58trn now accounts for 14.8% of the country’s assets in mutual funds, up from 10% a year ago. The growth is too fast even for the fund’s manager, who recently limited new automated subscriptions.
Assets under management in Chinese mutual funds
All other fund categories saw net outflows in 2017, as estimated by Morningstar. The allocation (mixed asset) category, the largest after money market, saw the biggest outflows, RMB 270bn, or about 16% of its AUM at the end of 2016. Fixed income funds also saw net outflows, amounting to around 14% of their December 2016 AUM.
2017 estimated net flows into Chinese mutual funds (bn RMB)
