With the release of the annual reports of listed banks in 2021, the performance of bank agency sales business has attracted much market attention. Under the transformation trend of big wealth management, the reporter of China business daily noted that the indicators of agent sales business of many banks have achieved rapid development, especially the increase of income of agent sales funds.
Affected by the market economy and regulatory environment, the product structure of bank consignment has also been adjusted, the agency consignment of non-standard products such as trust has been tightened, the proportion of products such as funds and insurance has surged, and the proportion of financial consignment of other banks is also increasing.
Investment advisory ability has also become the key for commercial banks to improve the competitiveness of agency sales business. According to a private bank business person of a bank, the bank positioned big wealth management as the core strategy of “new retail” transformation, realized the “dimension reduction” coverage of wealth management ability, and covered the original ability to serve private banks to ordinary wealth customers, which requires the improvement of investment consulting ability.
consignment product structure optimization and adjustment
Under the trend of promoting the transformation of great wealth management, the non interest income of commercial banks has achieved rapid growth, among which the agency sales business has performed well.
The reporter found that the sales revenue of many banks increased by more than 20% in 2021. For example, in China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) 2021, the income from wealth management fees and commissions was 35.841 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.00%, of which the income from agency funds was 12.315 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.20%; The agency insurance income was 8.215 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.80%; The income from financial products sold on commission was 6.292 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 53.69%.
Xiamen Bank Co.Ltd(601187) by the end of 2021, the sales volume of financial products sold by banks and bank financial subsidiaries on a commission basis was 37.576 billion yuan, an increase of 18.610 billion yuan or 98.12% over the end of 2020, and the fund holding volume increased by 90% year-on-year. In this regard, Xiamen Bank Co.Ltd(601187) said that the wealth management business aims to expand the scale of customers and financial assets. In terms of product strategy, it focuses on building an open product platform. In addition to the company’s self financing, it cooperates with banks, bank financial subsidiaries, funds, securities companies, trusts, insurance and other licensed financial institutions, realizing the coverage of the whole product line, such as fixed income, hybrid, equity and insurance.
The person in charge of retail business of a joint-stock bank revealed that last year, the bank accelerated the business transformation of wealth management. On products with high investor allocation needs such as funds, insurance and financial management, banks are actively doing large-scale work to enrich the product system and increase customer stickiness. “Especially in terms of funds, last year, banks made great efforts to discount and promote agency fund rates, and even some banks launched the sales platform of class C funds, which also greatly improved the scale of fund consignment of some banks year-on-year.”
A private banker from a joint-stock bank told reporters that the net worth of consignment products is the general trend, guide customers to adapt to the era of net worth, and introduce standardized fixed income or quasi fixed income consignment products in the future.
Wang Gang, deputy director of the banking research office of the Financial Research Institute of the development research center of the State Council, also pointed out that since last year, due to the impact of risk control, it is inevitable for banks to reduce the consignment scale of non-standard products; In the long run, the rigid demand trends of pension, medical care and green development will be highlighted, and the bank will be more forward-looking in accelerating the product layout in these fields.
The reporter noted that many banks are also actively expanding the consignment product line. For example, Bank Of Shanghai Co.Ltd(601229) previously proposed the “secondary transformation” of wealth management. Specific measures include deeply promoting multi-dimensional cooperation with public funds, opening up multiple product lines of investment, consignment, custody and liabilities, and expanding the scope of cooperation with fund companies from fixed income to equity assets, and from on balance sheet to off balance sheet. In addition, Bank Of Shanghai Co.Ltd(601229) will also broaden the high-quality non-public offering product line and vigorously promote the allocation categories such as TOF (trust investment fund) and fof (fund investment fund) to meet the diversified needs of different customers.
accelerate the transformation of buyer’s investment adviser
In the new stage of great wealth management transformation, while optimizing the product structure of bank consignment business, it is also urgent to improve the ability of all aspects.
“Overall, the bank’s consignment business pays more attention to the ability of asset management institutions and the adaptability to sales, that is, to sell the right products to the right investors.” Said Wang Jianzhong, China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) vice president.
It should be noted that in the post asset management era, the net worth transformation of asset management products puts forward higher requirements for the investment advisory ability of banks. “Most of the traditional wealth management institutions are equipped with investment advisers. However, under the circumstances of rapid economic growth in the past, most of the institutions have one-sided pursuit of sales scale, resulting in the core KPI of investment advisers is to sell products, and the high-yield fixed income products with rigid cashing have become the main force of sales. Customers regard these institutions more as channels for product purchase than institutions for asset allocation services.” Ping An Bank Co.Ltd(000001) private bank investment advisory center strategy director Lin youru said in an interview.
In this regard, Wang Gang told reporters: “in the past, banks were more channel advantages. After breaking the rigid cashing, banks should not only maintain their channel advantages, but also gradually look for other advantages, and strive to make up for their shortcomings in products, investment and research capacity, asset allocation and so on. However, this needs a continuous process. At present, some banks have increased their investment in investment consulting, and the effect is still good.”
For example, Guan Qingyou, President of the Financial Research Institute, wrote that accelerating the transformation of buyer investment advisers is not only necessary but also feasible. In terms of necessity, after making profits from the real economy, the growth rate of non interest net income of banks began to slow down, and new growth points are needed; The bank’s existing products and services are seriously homogeneous, and there is an urgent need to create differentiated competitive advantages; The new regulations on asset management will be officially implemented, and the service capacity of high net worth customers needs to be enhanced.
In terms of feasibility, Guan Qingyou pointed out that the bank has four advantages: the bank’s financial management subsidiaries have been established one after another, the active management ability has been continuously improved, and has a certain core competitiveness in the field of asset allocation; The bank has a huge customer base with a solid and sticky customer base; The bank has a huge offline investment advisory service system and a relatively complete customer operation and service mechanism, which is qualified to transform to active investment advisory; Existing banks have obtained the pilot qualification of fund investment adviser, and have the first mover advantage in the transformation to buyer investment adviser.
China Securities Co.Ltd(601066) previous research report pointed out that looking at the business model of leading wealth management institutions at home and abroad, it can be seen that behind the transformation of TOC wealth management from seller consignment to buyer investment adviser is the transformation of business model from product centered channel model to customer-centered platform model for internal resource integration, and then to the ecological model for external resource sharing under the same underlying structure, Among them, the transformation from seller’s channel to buyer’s platform is the key to the transformation of TOC wealth management.
Therefore, improving the ability of investment and research has become the inevitable direction for banks to develop wealth management Tian Huiyu, President of China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) said, China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) is actually a sales organization, and the advantages of the bank are mainly reflected in the channel. However, if the investment and research ability and asset allocation are not improved, it is difficult to achieve the goal of a real “wealth management organization”.
Referring to the specific ideas for banks to improve their investment advisory ability, Guan Qingyou suggested: first, enrich the product system and accelerate the net worth transformation, which is the basis for the transformation of buyer investment advisers and the new requirements of the new asset management regulations for banks; Second, strengthen investment and research capabilities and build diversified investment strategies. Asset allocation capability is the core competitiveness of buyer’s investment advisers, and it is also a relatively weak field for banks to be strengthened; Third, promote sector collaboration and explore high-quality linkage. By strengthening the linkage with other sectors of the group, banks can not only upgrade the product system, but also open up the service system through the empowerment of the group, which is helpful to build a wealth management bank; Fourth, strengthen risk control and increase the retention of safety margin. The basis and core of active investment advisers is trust. The premise of trust margin is safety margin, and doing a good job of risk management is the first priority.
