"the buyer's investment business represented by fund investment is the end of the wealth management of securities firms." The head of the wealth management business department of a large securities firm told the Securities Times that at present, however, the investment of brokerage funds is still faced with many challenges, and it is necessary to clarify the compatible logic among businesses such as consignment sales at home. Externally, it is necessary to face the competition of fund companies on the investment and research side, especially small and medium-sized securities firms, which makes it more difficult for the business to break the situation. The pilot project of fund investment business has been carried out for more than two years, and the participation of securities firms is getting deeper and deeper. With the second batch of fund investment pilot qualifications of China Merchants, Guoxin Securities, Oriental Securities recently officially landed to develop, the fund investment market war is also becoming more intense. Business breakup: relying on the first to take advantage of the rapid growth of residents' wealth management demand, as well as the rapid development of Internet finance and information technology, many market participants have analyzed that the fund investment business has huge room for growth in the future. it is expected to become a trillion-level market. According to the statistics of the CSRC, as of July this year, the total service assets of the first 18 pilot funds have exceeded 50 billion yuan, serving investors about 2.5 million yuan. So far, a total of 59 institutions have been approved to fund investment business pilot qualifications, including as many as 29 securities firms. However, for most of the brokerages that have obtained this qualification, fund investment is still in its infancy. Whether it is the bid fund company or the same kind of bid, the fund investment in this blue ocean business is obviously full of unlimited games, and each securities firm needs to find its own characteristics when looking for a way to break through. Among the public data available, Guolian Securities is the largest among the securities firms that have carried out fund investment business. Semi-annual report data show that the company's fund investment business signed a total of 97338 people, authorized account assets of 7.108 billion yuan. The characteristic of Guolian Securities is to take advantage of the situation. In order to make up for its relative shortcomings in business department, investment volume and Internet platform, Guolian Securities opens up space mainly through cooperation with tripartite institutions and small and medium-sized banks, and the company's own platform mainly serves ordinary wealth customers. At the same time, the company actively embraced the Internet platform and was one of the first brokerages to patronize housekeepers on Alipay, and the first to invest in the online fund of Tiantian Fund. On the external platform, Guolian Securities empowers small and medium-sized banks to share customer resources. The bank has the main account, the securities firm has the service ability, the company achieves the win-win situation by making up the short board for the small and medium-sized banks. "Guolian Securities is most dependent on its own fund investment qualifications and strategy quality in the 'borrowing'." A securities trader told the Securities Times that Guolian Securities has demonstrated its value in fund investment business due to its early layout in small and medium-sized banks and Internet platforms. However, with the follow-up of the large securities firms, the company does not have a first-mover advantage in various traffic platforms, so the quality of the follow-up investment strategy is facing challenges. Is also the first batch of fund investment business pilot brokerage, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities layout is more online and offline balance. Shenwan Hongyuan Fund Investment Business Coordinator Lai Xiao Xian said that in terms of consultants, the company currently has more than 2000 employees who are qualified for fund investment offline, distributed in more than 300 branches across the country; online, the company has set up a huge fund investment team. Before, after and after the customer's investment, the company has the corresponding business department's exclusive account manager or online fund investment team to maintain, answer customer questions and deeply follow up the customer's post-investment management. It is worth mentioning that as Caitong Securities, Oriental Securities, Guoxin Securities, CITIC and so on have landed fund investment business, the competition in the field of fund investment will be more fierce. On November 10, at the fund investment sub-forum of "CITIC 2022 Capital Market Annual meeting", Li Yongjin, member of the CITIC Executive Committee and director of the Wealth Management Committee, said that the company's fund investment business had only seven working days in the official exhibition industry. the number of participating clients reached 9000 and the contracted assets exceeded 360 million yuan. "at present, various securities firms are still in the exploratory stage, and it is difficult to see who has an absolute advantage. But specifically, the head brokerage with high-quality Internet platform, top investment and research team and high-quality offline resources will be dominant in an all-round way. " The aforementioned brokerage personage said that the break of the business of small and medium-sized securities firms can only rely on more focused resource input and more comprehensive structural transformation to concentrate on breakthroughs. Structure Breaking: strategic setting balance Game Caitong Securities Fund Investment Business Department believes that the development trend at home and abroad shows that wealth management has changed from stock brokerage to product sales, and finally to discretionary account management. fund investment is the initial stage of the ultimate form of wealth management, and fund investment business is the starting point for the transformation of wealth management. It will completely change the existing business model, customer acquisition model and employee career development channel of securities firms. This also means that the development of fund investment business is inseparable from the depth of organizational change. Zheng Kedong, deputy general manager of Societe Generale Securities Wealth Management Department, previously pointed out that after the issuance of the first batch of fund investment licenses in China, investment institutions have become a new species. The difficulty of the fund investment business is that it needs to be hatched from the existing financial system, but it is different from the existing system. It is not difficult for third-party institutions to obtain licences, and the transformation will be relatively faster, but for traditional financial institutions, there is a need to strike a balance between existing business and the development of new species. At present, a number of securities firms regard the fund investment business as a part of the big wealth management business. For example, Guoxin Securities, which has just landed to invest in the business, its customer service exhibition core is that Jin Gu Xin lost the whole private property research, built and maintained the nuclear production pool and woven industrial training and pick up customers throughout the process of texture, and the part belongs to the record industry. The earlier confession was in Fuli., Training, to provide customers with full-process service support. Organizationally, the department belongs to the brokerage department. Earlier, China Merchants set up a fund investment business team of more than 10 people within the Ministry of Wealth Management. The organizational structure and strategic position determine the resources that the investment business department can mobilize within the securities firm, and also determine the strength of the investment department in the game with other departments. Although the size of the fund investment staff of the head brokerage is often more than three digits, most of the fund investment is transformed from the brokers or securities investment consultants of the front-line business department, and even has multiple identities. When a person takes into account both the product consignment business and the fund investment business, the consignment business that can get the rebate after the completion of the sale can obviously mobilize their positivity. therefore, the fund investment must have sufficient interest commitment to mobilize front-line personnel. Taking fees as an example, in order to protect the interests of investors and prevent double charges, if pilot institutions carry out fund sales business at the same time in accordance with regulatory requirements, reasonable arrangements shall be made for the collection of fund sales fees. If a fund manager collects client maintenance fees, he shall avoid conflicts of interest by deducting the client maintenance fees against the investment consultant service fees. "in the actual business operation, in order to ensure the enthusiasm of the front-line staff, most securities firms return the fund investment fees to the fund sales agent." The head of the fund investment department of a large securities firm told the Securities Times reporter. In this way, for the whole fund to invest in the business unit, the short-term income will obviously be limited, which also means that the development of the department depends on the "face" of the leader and other departments. "the fund investment business is not profitable now, which is also the core difficulty of the fund investment. If you want to break the situation in the organizational structure, it is best to integrate business such as product consignment into the fund investment business, but for most head brokers, this situation is very difficult to achieve. The head of the investment business department of the aforementioned fund said. There is even a head brokerage to the Securities Times reporter frankly that they are ready for the fund to invest in losses for three to five years. "Fund investment is a product from scratch for securities firms, and the fund investment carried out by securities firms is more like a traditional car factory manufacturing new energy vehicles, which will be limited in terms of the whole business gene and the driving force of transformation." Wang Shengzu, head and managing director of Haitong International Asset Management Department, said in an interview with the Securities Times that for most brokerages, development fund investment may need to make a big break, or even start another. for example, holding a fund company to carry out fund investment business, or simply set up a subsidiary. Lai Xiaoxian also said that in the pilot of the new business, all companies will understand that it is not easy to promote the early business, and will not have too high expectations for making money at the early stage. They all focus on the sense of customer harvest, investment in teaching, investment in business promotion, and the growth of the scale of the business. The purpose of the fund investment is to solve the problems such as "fund products are too many and difficult to choose" and "the fund makes money but the base people do not make money". Therefore, there is the saying of "three-point investment, seven-point consideration". However, in the process of securities firms carrying out business, the rate of return that investment can bring is obviously an important "stepping stone" to open the market. In fact, many front-line fund investment business staff are feedback, although the company's high-yield strategy has performed very well this year, and they often communicate with clients, but the question that clients often ask is "Why is it rising so slowly?" "clients' desire for returns is the top priority. Fund investment should educate investors to treat investment returns correctly, but it does not mean that strategies can give up the pursuit of excess returns." Fang Bing (a pseudonym) told the Securities Times. As a staff member of the wealth management department of a small securities firm, Fang Bing's securities firm is eager for the fund investment license, but is also deeply anxious about the difficulties, the core of which is the lack of research strength and lack of confidence in investment returns. In some large Internet platforms, the annualized return level of each investment will be directly displayed. In the strategy of pursuing high returns, the annualized return level of different strategies can reach a gap of about 10%, and the choice of customers can be imagined. Wang Shengzu also pointed out that for some securities firms with insufficient investment and research strength, the stock investment business not only has the investment business income, but also can drive the brokerage business income, but the fund investment business means that a new team will be added to conduct research and screening of funds and fund managers. The research pressure of the brokerage itself on individual stocks is already big enough, and then increase the fund investment business, the costs and benefits must be mentioned on the table for consideration. On the contrary, for fund companies, whether it is to carry out FOF business or issue their own fund products, the whole business system is carried out around the fund, and the new cost of fund investment is relatively limited. Moreover, many funds invest in selling their own products, and it is clear that fund companies will be more motivated. Of course, many securities firms also spare no effort to invest in research and other resources. "the public offering fund FOF, the public offering fund investment team can share the investment research platform, has the stronger buy, the seller resources, and the firm operation time is longer, but in fact the brokerage fund investment team also has the very strong competitiveness. As of November 19, taking our fund's equity strategy of typical market-wide active management as an example, the portfolio performance has risen by more than 12% this year, ranking among the top 10 compared with more than 300 public FOF in the same period. " Wang Feng, head of the investment team of Guotai Junan Fund, told the Securities Times. Lai Xiao Xian believes that if purely from the incentive point of view, the securities firm as a whole and the bank deposit one of the potential to invest in the FF base industry, commercial and public institutions., As for the investment of OF and fund industry, securities firms and public offerings have their own advantages. According to his analysis: first of all, in terms of investment and research, most of the people who have obtained business permits are head securities firms, which have strong research capabilities, including research at all levels is not weaker than fund companies; secondly, compared with fund research, the scope of research and research is wider, and the perspective of evaluation is more neutral and objective. Thirdly, securities firms are more balanced in the research, investment and multi-asset allocation of different types of assets, which is more important for the fund investment business which provides account management and services based on medium-and long-term asset allocation. Shen Wanhongyuan attaches great importance to the construction of the investment and research team, whose members come from different industries such as insurance, banking, securities firms, private and public offerings, with rich backgrounds and complementary knowledge and experience. We pay particular attention to the echelon complementarity between FOF investment managers and the new generation of investment managers who have more than 5 years of investment experience, and the boundaries of the elements needed for investment such as vision, ability and energy have been greatly expanded. " According to Lai Xiao Xian, Shen Wan Hongyuan's investment and research takes into account both public offering, private placement and other financial products, and even covers some overseas markets. Behind the stack, the support of Shenwan Research Institute, which has strength in the industry, broadens the team's horizons and makes the team have a better understanding of the market. Thinking is broken: the initial investment always strives for excellence for the brokerage investment business, "investment" is the beginning, "gu" is the core. Recently, regulators have issued to a number of fund investment institutions the guidelines on the performance of publicly raised Securities Investment Fund Investment Consulting Services and the display of client assets (draft for soliciting opinions). To standardize the performance of publicly raised securities investment fund investment advisory services and the display of client assets. In the aspect of service performance display, it is clear that the combination of performance display indicators and service evaluation indicators in parallel. If the performance index of the investment portfolio strategy is displayed, the evaluation index of the fund service shall be displayed at the same time; it is required that the ranking of the performance index and scale of the fund investment portfolio shall not be carried out. China International Capital Corporation believes that the introduction of relevant documents on fund investment norms has accelerated and improved the system of laws and regulations in the industry, which not only helps to standardize the development of the industry and optimize the pattern of market competition, but also guides investors to establish a scientific and long-term investment concept and better safeguard the rights and interests of investors. In the process of developing the industry, head securities firms have already paid great attention to the balance between "investment" and "care". "examining the basis of the 'care' aspect of the investment business, a certain proportion of the long-term service customer groups of securities firms will be transformed into fund investment business customers, and the front-line investment team of securities firms will have a larger group and wider network coverage. moreover, there is a long-established understanding, connection and service relationship with customers, which is more convenient, direct and customer stickiness than the relationship between the investment team and customers in the fund industry." Lai Xiao Xian said. Lai Xiao Xian said that securities firms can show the characteristic indicators of customers' trading behavior by observing the reinvestment rate of each strategy combination and the number of days participating in the investment plan. as well as monitoring indicators that reflect the percentage of customer profits, withdrawal and repair days and other monitoring indicators that reflect the actual operation of the strategy portfolio, to assess the possible success of customers participating in the investment plan in participating in this business. With the further development of the investment business, these evaluation factors will bring about the continuous optimization and improvement of the evaluation system. "from the client's point of view, the performance ranking between fund investments is relatively small, at present, it is difficult to obtain data between each other, and there is no third-party platform in the market to fully display the performance of these portfolios. However, the performance of the public offering fund FOF is open and transparent, and customers are easy to obtain, so customers often ask us about the similarities and differences between the strategy portfolio and the public FOF. In terms of investment technology, the brokerage fund investment team also has its own genes and characteristics. This year is the first year of official operation, and from next year, we can even bid for the best public offering FOF team in China, pursuing excellence in every link of 'investment' and'gu'. " Wang Feng said. Wang Feng said that when communicating with clients on the performance of the fund portfolio, Guotai Junan paid more attention to the integrity of the indicators, which was also the unified requirement of the company at the initial stage of the exhibition industry, such as the interval rate of return, the rate of return since its establishment, the maximum withdrawal of the range, and so on, as well as professional indicators such as interval volatility, Sharp ratio, and so on. At the same time, the company also emphasizes the indicators of "care", such as the proportion of profitable customers, the proportion of additional investment by customers, the retention rate of customer funds, the average length of management entrusted by customers, and so on. "rational and objective description of portfolio performance, and further tracking and checking of customer experience indicators, we believe that this is the basic attribute of the fund investment business." Wang Feng said.