China’s unlicensed asset management firms still a threat, central bank official says

Fan Yifei, the vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, announced that a sizable proportion of the 5,000 third-party wealth management firms in China do not have the licence to sell insurance or public offerings of funds.

China introduced sweeping asset management rules in April 2018 to crack down on risky shadow lending and excessive financial leverage via banks’ wealth management products. Some unlicensed asset management companies are still operating in China, causing a “serious threat to financial stability”, a top official of China’s central bank on Saturday.

“The central bank last month extended a grace period for implementing these rules by a year to the end of 2021. The standards remain unchanged despite the extension”, Fan continued.