Insurance giants are accelerating the layout of public funds. On May 28, Taikang asset, the head insurance institution, announced that its holding subsidiary Taikang Fund Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Taikang fund") obtained the license for operating securities and futures business issued by the CSRC on May 26. So far, the establishment of Taikang fund has been completed. According to the official website of China Securities Investment Fund Industry Association, in addition to Taikang fund, there are 8 insurance public fund managers, including PICC assets, Ping An fund, Guoshou security fund, Hongde fund, Guolian security fund, Taiping fund, Zheshang fund and Huatai Baoxing fund. According to the statistics of choice, as of the end of March this year, the total net value of the funds managed by these nine institutions was about 1.2 trillion yuan. Many insiders interviewed by the reporter of Securities Daily believe that the development prospect of public funds in the insurance sector is broad. On the one hand, insurance is a public fund, which can rely on the resource endowment of the parent company and give full play to the dual advantages of insurance fund investment and public fund investment; On the other hand, on the basis of making effective use of the parent company's brand, customers, channels and other resources, insurance mutual funds can better play a strategic synergy. Insurance is a public fund Add another "general" As the first insurance asset management company approved for public fund management qualification in China, Taikang assets was approved to carry out public fund management business as early as April 2015 and operated in the form of public fund business unit. This time, after obtaining the license for operating securities and futures business issued by the CSRC, Taikang asset public offering business department officially transformed into an independent fund company. According to the above announcement, the registered capital of Taikang fund is 120million yuan. In addition, according to the previous approval of the CSRC, Taikang assets contributed 96million yuan to Taikang fund, accounting for 80% of the shares; Five core employee stock ownership platforms contributed 24million yuan, accounting for 20% of the shares. The legal representative is jinzhigang, who was previously the head of Taikang asset public offering business department. According to the relevant person in charge of Taikang fund, by the end of March 2022, Taikang asset public offering business had a total of 62 public offering fund products, with a management scale exceeding 100 billion yuan. In fact, in addition to Taikang fund, there are also 8 insurance public funds that have been established in recent years. Among them, PICC assets submitted an application for the establishment of PICC fund to the CSRC in October, 2020, hoping to establish an independent public fund management company, which was officially accepted on October 23, 2020. From the equity structure of these nine insurance mutual funds, among them, the controlling shareholder of eight insurance mutual funds is an insurance institution, and the second largest shareholder of one insurance mutual fund is an insurance institution. From the perspective of product scale under management, as of the end of the first quarter of this year, the management scale of 9 Insurance Department public funds was about 1.2 trillion yuan. Zhou Jin, a management consulting partner of PWC China's financial industry, told the reporter of Securities Daily that the insurance asset management layout of public funds adopts two methods: new establishment and M & A. The preference and ability of public funds under the former model are derived from insurance asset management, and their advantages are mostly concentrated in the field of fixed income. However, with the strong customer base and fund-raising ability of insurance asset management, they can also occupy a place in the market. The public funds under the latter mode mostly hope to improve the equity investment ability of insurance asset management, so the equity investment ability is usually relatively prominent. No matter which model, public funds are a supplement to the traditional insurance asset management capability. Obvious differentiated competitive advantage Large development space for public offering of Insurance Department In the opinion of the interviewed experts, although the current development scale of the insurance public fund is relatively small, the differentiated competitive advantage is obvious and the development space is huge. In an interview with reporters, jinzhigang said that for the market opportunities of the public offering industry in the future, from the demand side, there is a strong demand for maintaining and increasing the value of residents' wealth and a strong demand for asset allocation. With the deepening of investor education, residents' awareness of investment and financial management has been strengthened, and their demand for investment and financial management has increased significantly. From the medium and long-term perspective, under the background of the arrival of the age of longevity and the slowdown of economic growth, handing over financial funds to professional investment institutions can not only improve the expected return level, but also stabilize the high volatility. As a professional investment institution, the public offering of insurance has broad prospects and promising prospects. "From the perspective of the future development of the public fund industry, it needs the participation of multiple resources and funds from multiple channels. The huge capital volume and long-term investment preference of insurance funds are conducive to the public fund industry to practice the concept of long-term value investment. From the perspective of the use of insurance funds, there is also a practical need to reduce the risk of interest spread loss through the 'fixed income +' strategy or more active equity investment strategy during the downward cycle of interest rates. From these two aspects In combination, the public fund business of insurance institutions does have a lot of room for development. " Zhou Jin said. Jinzhigang further said that for the insurance public fund, relying on the resource endowment of the parent company, it can give full play to the dual advantages of insurance capital investment and public fund investment. In addition to many inherent advantages, the layout of public funds by insurance institutions is also conducive to the development of their main business. Wangchuanzhen, a senior person in the insurance asset management industry and one of the first investment managers in the insurance industry after the filing system of investment linked accounts, told the Securities Daily that through the layout of public funds, insurance institutions can effectively broaden the service line of the insurance industry and enhance business synergy and customer stickiness. With the intensification of competition in the field of personal wealth management, financial institutions continue to innovate and expand in the "one-stop" way to meet customer needs. The layout of public funds is expected to help insurance institutions continue to expand their service lines such as health management and pension business beyond the traditional underwriting product lines. Wangchuanzhen further said that in recent years, insurance asset management institutions have made gratifying breakthroughs in the field of individual customers: on the one hand, major large insurance asset management institutions have obtained public fund licenses and can directly conduct business for individual investors; On the other hand, the industry actively strives for policy support. As early as in the Interim Measures for the management of insurance asset management products issued in March 2020, the channels for individuals meeting the conditions of "qualified investors" to participate in the investment of insurance asset management products were opened. Expert advice Insurance is a public offering and needs dislocation competition At present, although the absolute amount of the development scale of insurance mutual funds is not small, it does not account for a high proportion in the entire mutual fund industry. In this regard, industry insiders suggest that the insurance public funds can rely on their main business advantages to carry out misplaced competition. According to public data, by the end of the first quarter of this year, the total management scale of more than 160 fund managers had reached 25.5 trillion yuan, but the proportion of insurance public funds was less than 5%. "Scale may not be the main goal pursued by the insurance public fund. In the future, the insurance public fund should make more use of its strong brand, customer, channel advantages and the functional advantages of the traditional underwriting business, embed the public fund business into the financial service system throughout the customer's life cycle, and strategically lay out the high-value share in the personal wealth management market at a small trial and error cost and low cost." Wangchuanzhen said. The person in charge of equity investment of an insurance asset management institution also told the reporter that if the insurance public fund wants to grow, on the one hand, it should strengthen its investment advantage in the fixed income market, on the other hand, it should get rid of the inherent genetic constraints of the insurance asset management institution and strengthen the investment and research capacity of the equity market. Among them, strengthening the construction of the talent team is the key. (Xinhua News Agency)