BNY Mellon Western Fund Management plans to rapidly expand staff by 2011.
The firm, a joint venture with Chinese asset manger Western Securities, plans to increase staff by around 70%, according to Bi Hu, chief executive officer and former senior executive at BNY Mellon Asset Management. They will be mainly investment, sales and back office, he said to Bloomberg.
BNY Mellon’s asset management arm was granted a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) licence by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in November 2009.
The CSRC gave approval for the JV in July. Hu said at the time: “We have very ambitious expansion plans for our new company, which include becoming one of China’s leading QFII advisors through actively pursuing QFII sub-advisory deals with foreign institutional investors and providing access to new products in China.”
BNY Mellon Western Fund Management is initially focussing on domestic Chinese securities in a range of local retail fund products.
With a registered capital of $146 million, Western Securities is based in Xi’an and has 34 securities branches and 20 securities services offices throughout China.