Funds under management in China will increase ten-fold over the next six years to a total of $1,600 billion in 2010. Or so predicts a study by Hong Kong based research house, Matrix Services. The Chinese capital markets, and the range of investment instruments and strategies available to Chinese investors, will broaden commensurately, says the report, as savings shift away from dull state-owned bank accounts to active fund managers and the private pension and life assurance industries take off.
Around 40 fund managers are active on the Chinese mainland at present, including a dozen joint ventures with foreign fund managers approved by local regulators. At present, foreign firms can sell only mutual funds that invest in domestic shares and bonds.