1. Wealth management companies and banks are increasingly creating and developing "wealth management night markets," breaking time restrictions to meet the needs of more investors; 2. Against the backdrop of declining deposit rates, there is still huge development potential for bank wealth management, and wealth management companies can continue to focus on product innovation, channel innovation, and service model innovation.
On January 10, Financial Associated Press reported (by reporter Gao Ping) that at the end of the year and the beginning of the new year, the bank wealth management night market and weekend wealth management craze are back. Minsheng Wealth Management published the latest content related to weekend wealth management on January 10. The reporter from Financial Associated Press found that since January, multiple banks and wealth management companies have launched content related to wealth management night markets and weekend wealth management. Among them, several institutions have newly launched night market wealth management.
Multiple interviewed wealth management companies stated that after launching the wealth management night market, the scale of related wealth management products has grown significantly. Industry insiders told Financial Associated Press reporters that wealth management companies and banks are creating and developing "wealth management night markets," breaking time restrictions to meet more investor needs. This also represents continuous innovation under market competition, attracting investors and seizing market share by launching the "wealth management night market." Against the backdrop of declining deposit rates, there is still significant development potential for bank wealth management, and wealth management companies can continue to focus on product innovation, channel innovation, and service model innovation.
Banks and wealth management subsidiaries compete for market share, with more institutions joining the layout of the wealth management night market.
Since January, banks and wealth management companies announcing the launch of the wealth management night market and pushing weekend wealth management have been particularly dense. "Weekend wealth management never closes," stated the latest release from Bohai Bank Wealth Management regarding weekend wealth management products, which indicates that by confirming shares based on the net value on Friday, investors can enjoy the opportunity for weekend earnings on the 2nd day. Coincidentally, ICBC Wealth Management also recently released a post about "starting a weekend wealth management journey."
In addition, several banks and wealth management subsidiaries have recently launched night market wealth management. For example, HUISHANG BANK Ma'anshan Branch published an article in January announcing the opening of the HUISHANG Bank Wealth Management Night Market, with trading hours extended until 24:00, and they also introduced the first night market wealth management product. Jinhu Rural Commercial Bank also released related information in January about the 24-hour operating cash wealth management launched by Suzhou Bank Wealth Management.
HUISHANG BANK staff introduced to the reporter that the first night market wealth management product has now been launched, and the difference between night market wealth management products and ordinary cash management products is that the Trade time is longer, and applications can be accepted all day on weekdays.
In fact, at the beginning of 2024, banks and wealth management companies are scrambling to layout wealth management night markets. By the end of February, China Post Wealth Management and Qingyin Wealth Management published related posts about the wealth management night market and introduced multiple exclusive products for the wealth management night market. At that time, China Post Wealth Management also mentioned that more night market exclusive products will continuously be launched.
Behind the hot layout of the 'Wealth Management Night Market,' industry insiders analyze three reasons. First, in an extremely competitive market environment, the cash management sector is highly homogenized, leading various Institutions to launch the 'Wealth Management Night Market' to attract investors and seize market share. Second, market demand is growing, with more investors hoping that wealth management products can break time restrictions and meet the need for investing anytime and anywhere. Third, the service levels of Institutions have improved, and in the case of highly similar products with negligible differences in returns, the timely response to investor needs by issuing Institutions and the improvement in customer service levels are key to winning investor trust.
The scale of related products from some wealth management companies has increased by over 10 billion yuan compared to before the night market opened, and the 'de-intermediation' of deposits remains an important support for the expansion of wealth management scale.
The 'Wealth Management Night Market' is essentially an innovation in the service model and products of the wealth management industry," said Chen Xuanjin, a researcher at Puyin Standard, to a reporter from Caixin. Wang Yifeng, Chief Analyst of the Financial Industry at Everbright Securities, stated that as wealth management subsidiaries compete to layout low-volatility, stable product lines, the characteristics of product homogenization will become more pronounced, intensifying competition among wealth management Institutions and continuously promoting product innovation. For instance, wealth management companies are creating the 'Wealth Management Night Market' to optimize specific product subscription and redemption time arrangements.
A representative from a bank's wealth management subsidiary stated that the products in the Wealth Management Night Market have broken traditional rules of subscription and redemption, ensuring that investors can enjoy uniform confirmation rights for wealth management products purchased before midnight on the same day. This means that even if the conventional purchase time is missed, investors can still buy wealth management products and enjoy the same return calculation as purchases made during the day. Buying before holidays allows for additional cross-holiday N-day income opportunities.
Reporters from Caixin learned from multiple bank wealth management subsidiaries that had previously launched the Wealth Management Night Market that its opening has yielded significant results. According to information from Zhao Yin Wealth Management, the company’s 'Wealth Management Night Market' service has been highly welcomed since its launch. Compared to traditional cash management that cuts off at 15:30, the Wealth Management Night Market products extend the cut-off time to 24:00, greatly satisfying customers' night-time wealth management needs. This helps improve the availability and convenience of wealth management products, avoids idle funds, and fully reflects the inclusiveness and people-centric nature of wealth management products.
In addition, the latest disclosed data from ICBC Wealth Management shows that on July 25, 2024, ICBC Wealth Management's 'Wealth Management Night Market' was launched for the first time. As of December 11, 2024, a total of six night market wealth management products have been listed, with a scale increase of 11.5 billion yuan compared to before the night market opened.
'Currently, there are still many unstable factors in the macroeconomic environment. If the economy continues to recover in 2025 and market risk appetite increases, it will be beneficial for bank wealth management to attract more inflows, possibly driving further growth in scale,' said Yang Qi, an analyst at Puyin Standard, to Caixin reporters. For wealth management subsidiaries, closely following market changes and continuously enhancing core competitiveness is expected to achieve sustained scale growth.
'Looking ahead to 2025, Wang Yifeng believes that the de-intermediation of deposits may still be an important support for the expansion of wealth management scale, with a neutral estimate of an incremental scale of 2-3 trillion, bringing the year-end scale to around 32-33 trillion. Meanwhile, factors such as the degree of decline and volatility in bond market interest rates, whether the stock market continues to improve incentivizing an increase in equity investments, and marginal changes in residents' risk preferences must be observed. If the fluctuation range of wealth management scale expands to between 5%-15%, then the overall scale may fall within the range of 31-34 trillion.'
