Since the fourth quarter, influenced by policy encouragement and the recovery of the equity market, bank wealth management companies have increased their efforts in equity market layout. According to Wind statistics, as of December 25th, banks and bank wealth management companies have established a total of 238 mixed and equity wealth management products since October, an increase of 124.53% compared to 106 in the third quarter. At present, the wealth management market is still dominated by fixed income products. However, in a low interest rate environment, with the suspension of manual interest payments and constraints on interbank deposit rates, the overall asset yield of the market continues to decline. The high-yield, low volatility business model that wealth management relies on is being challenged, and bank wealth management companies urgently need to break through. Industry insiders believe that there is significant room for development and promising opportunities in the future equity market. Bank wealth management companies increasing their equity investment efforts can provide investors with more diversified wealth management products, and also help promote the transformation of their business and enhance their asset management capabilities. Since the fourth quarter, the issuance of mixed and equity wealth management products has significantly increased. According to Wind statistics, as of December 25th, banks and bank wealth management companies have established a total of 238 mixed and equity products since October, an increase of 124.53% compared to 106 in the third quarter. Among them, banks and bank wealth management companies have established 12 equity products since the fourth quarter, while only 2 equity products were established in the third quarter. From the perspective of management institutions, more than ten bank wealth management companies such as ICBC Wealth Management, Everbright Wealth Management, Agricultural Bank of China Wealth Management, and Minsheng Wealth Management have recently established multiple equity wealth management products. From the perspective of underlying asset allocation of equity wealth management products, most products still focus on stable assets with a risk level of R2-R3. Most mixed products invest in fixed income assets and equity assets with fixed income attributes, such as preferred stocks. Taking the "ICBC Wealth Management · Xinyue Preferred Stock Strategy Optimal Hybrid Closed end Wealth Management Product" that ICBC Wealth Management began raising on December 26th as an example, this product is a hybrid product that relies on ICBC Wealth Management's strategic reserves and investment experience in the field of asset allocation, combined with the risk return characteristics of major assets, to allocate debt assets and equity assets, and dynamically adjust them. In terms of equity investment, this product actively allocates preferred stock assets with fixed income characteristics, stable dividend yields, and issued by high-level high-quality entities through a preferred stock selection strategy. From the perspective of investment strategy, in addition to the preferred stock strategy mentioned above, quantitative strategy has received attention from bank wealth management companies in recent years. For example, Everbright Wealth Management's "Sunshine Orange Anying Quantitative Enhancement Day Open No.1 (60 day Minimum Holding)", which comprehensively considers product profitability and liquidity, strictly controls risk exposure through research and judgment of target returns and risk characteristics of various assets, and moderately increases portfolio elasticity through investment in quantitative strategy assets such as arbitrage and market neutrality, striving to achieve stable appreciation of wealth management products while effectively controlling risks. In addition, with the recovery of the market, several bank wealth management companies have recently reported frequent good news, showcasing the results of their wealth management funds entering the market and increasing the promotion of their equity products. For example, CMB Wealth Management announced that as of December 13th, several equity wealth management products of CMB Wealth Management have performed outstandingly, with some products experiencing a net asset value increase of over 30% in the past year. Overall, among the wealth management products currently in existence, fixed income products still account for a large proportion, while mixed and equity products are relatively rare. As of December 26th, according to data from China Wealth Management Network, the proportion of fixed income wealth management products in existence in the market (excluding foreign banks) reached 95.57%, mixed products accounted for 4.16%, and equity products accounted for 0.14%. In response, a person in charge of personal finance business at a state-owned bank told reporters that there are two main reasons for the current issuance structure of wealth management products. On the one hand, bank wealth management companies started relatively late, and most of them originated from the fixed income investment department of banks, with less involvement in the equity market. The concept of equity market layout and investment research ability need to be strengthened. On the other hand, the overall risk preference of the customer group who purchases wealth management products is relatively low, and investors' long-term understanding of the 'deposit like' nature of wealth management products has not been completely broken, with high expectations for the stability of their returns. Based on this, bank wealth management companies position stable net asset value growth as their main product positioning. However, with the suspension of manual interest payments and constraints on interbank deposit rates, the overall asset return rate in the market is declining this year, and the high-yield, low volatility business model that wealth management products rely on is facing challenges. From the perspective of the underlying assets of fixed income wealth management products, they mainly allocate assets such as bonds, cash, and bank deposits. In the current environment of "low interest rates, low interest spreads, asset shortages, and high volatility", the decline in underlying asset yields has led to a decrease in fixed income product yields. As of December 26, the yield of 10-year treasury bond was 1.7345%, down more than 80 basis points from the beginning of the year. Ai Yawen, senior analyst at Rong360 Digital Technology Research Institute, believes that since the beginning of this year, the downward shift of policy interest rates and the decline of market funding rates have led to a downward trend in the yield of fixed income wealth management products. Gao Xiangyang, President of ICBC Wealth Management, stated at the "2024 Banking Wealth Management Forum" that as of now, the scale of bank wealth management products has exceeded 30 trillion yuan. The specialized business characteristics of the industry are more prominent, and the distinctive market positioning is more clear, which has initially created its own core competitiveness. However, in the current low interest rate environment, the difficulty of matching asset returns and liability costs in the field of bank wealth management products is increasing, and the difficulty of meeting customers' low wave stable investment needs is also significant. Industry insiders believe that in a low interest rate environment, fixed income wealth management products have relatively limited return space for customers, while the equity market has significant development potential and promising opportunities in the future. For bank wealth management companies, increasing equity investment can help provide investors with more diversified wealth management products, improve product returns and attractiveness, and also promote business transformation and enhance asset management capabilities. Du Yang, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute, stated that the layout of equity based wealth management products by bank wealth management companies can effectively diversify risks in the short term, create more returns for customers by taking advantage of stock market opportunities, balance overall yield levels, and reduce the negative impact of bond market volatility on wealth management products. The relevant person in charge of the channel department of a state-owned bank wealth management company told reporters: "Currently, various bank wealth management companies have a relatively positive attitude towards the layout of the equity market. On the one hand, with the support of a package of incremental policies, the economy continues to recover and improve, effectively boosting market confidence, the equity market rebounds, and investors' risk preferences have increased. On the other hand, regulatory authorities vigorously guide medium and long-term funds to enter the market, break through the bottlenecks of social security, insurance, bank wealth management and other funds entering the market, and strive to boost the capital market. Many bank wealth management companies actively respond to policy calls and will increase their investment in equity assets at the right time." Gao Xiangyang believes that bank wealth management companies should continue to forge core competitiveness through improving their investment research capabilities, customer service capabilities, and financial technology capabilities, while adhering to integrity and innovation, Better meet the needs of investors for wealth preservation and appreciation in the process of transformation and development. We should adhere to the dual wheel drive of asset management and wealth management, and strengthen the construction of value creation capabilities; Persist in promoting the formation of digital momentum and strengthening the construction of financial technology capabilities; Persist in promoting product transformation and strengthening investment capacity building. (New Society)