New bank wealth management products issued decreased month-over-month, with 40 unsuccessful fundraising attempts. The market has entered an era of stock competition.

Ask AI · Why are low-risk wealth management products also failing to raise funds?

Our reporter Jinshuan Hu from chinatimes.net.cn, Shanghai reports

As high-yield deposits mature, the large-scale bank wealth management market is seeing new changes.

According to incomplete statistics from the Law Inquiry Wealth Management website, as of now, since the beginning of the year there have been 40 wealth management products that failed to issue; among the managing institutions are not only major banks but also joint-stock bank wealth management companies, and all of them are fixed-income products. In terms of risk level, the vast majority are R2 (medium-low risk) or even R1 (low risk), and closed-end net-value products have received little interest as well. In addition, the number of new bank wealth management products this year has also fallen month-on-month by several hundred; according to CICC Wealth Management Statistics, in January 2026 there were 2,969 wealth management products newly issued in January, down by 305 month-on-month; in February, 2,396 new products were issued, down by 573 month-on-month. By the end of February, the total number of bank wealth management products in the entire market was 47,518, and products issued by wealth management subsidiaries accounted for 77.88% of the total issuance volume.

“Not only does this phenomenon break the ‘unbeatable’ product myth from the era of rigid capital guarantees in the wealth management market, it also reflects structural contradictions in the market amid the deepening of net-value transformation. Structural changes in investors’ risk appetite are the primary driver behind product issuance failures. Although bank deposit interest rates continue to be lowered, residents’ total savings have not shown an obvious decline. Behind this is investors’ persistent concern about fluctuations in wealth management net values,” said Jiang Bin, head of wealth management research at the Law Inquiry Financial Research Institute.

Behind the month-on-month decline and issuance failures

Industry veterans point out that although, in terms of absolute numbers, the impact of the current decline in newly issued bank wealth management products and issuance failures is almost invisible, the appearance of two major signals suggests that bank wealth management may be entering an era of competition over existing stock.

“In the past, failures to raise funds for bank wealth management products also happened every year. But it’s relatively rare to see dozens of products fail to raise funds in a single quarter, and to have the issuing parties span from state-owned major banks to rural commercial banks and other financial institutions of all sizes. We believe that behind these two phenomena is still closely related to increased volatility in the stock market and a downward slide in bond market yields,” Liang Wei, an analyst in fixed income at a leading securities firm in Shanghai, told reporters of 华夏时报.

On March 18, for instance, a state-owned major bank’s wealth management subsidiary issued an announcement stating that the 嘉鑫（稳利） fixed-income category minimum holding for 30 days, Product No. 38 (National Banking Industry Wealth Management Information Registration System number: Z7000726000158), and the 嘉鑫（稳利） fixed-income category daily open-ended Product No. 68 (National Banking Industry Wealth Management Information Registration System number: Z7000726000394) that it issued would be raised between 9:00 on March 16, 2026 and 17:00 on March 17, 2026, but failed to raise funds because the fundraising and establishment conditions were not met. In addition, there was another issuance failure: 华夏理财 fixed-income pure-bond shortest holding for 90 days wealth management product W, with the reason that the issuance scale did not reach the preset requirement for invested asset. In February this year, Bo Yuan Wealth Management released an announcement stating that its 财收有略 series fixed-income one-year closed-end wealth management product could not be established due to not reaching the minimum fundraising scale. In January, Guang Yin Wealth Management’s 幸福添利 closed-end fixed-income public wealth management product No. 3059 also failed to be issued because the fundraising scale did not meet the product prospectus’s minimum establishment scale requirement.

After combing through announcements from various banks’ wealth management products, this reporter found that the main reasons for the failures of this round of “ships that sank” products are three: high homogeneity, closed-end fixed income, and the fundraising scale not meeting the minimum threshold.

“From the essence of the phenomenon, this is not an isolated incident, but an inevitable result of intensifying homogenous competition among fixed-income products in a low-interest-rate environment. When market yields continue to fall, traditional closed-end fixed-income products significantly lose attractiveness to investors. And if wealth management companies still follow the past, scale-driven issuance rhythm, they are likely to face resistance at the fundraising stage. This also shows that a certain degree of mismatch has emerged between the product end and the funds end in the wealth management market,” Wu Zewei, a special researcher at a bank, told reporters.

Previously, Puyi Standard published views stating that the core supply-side factor causing the homogeneity dilemma in wealth management product design and issuance failures is that many products are too similar. Among the failed products, most are highly similar in core elements such as investment scope, operating models, and performance benchmarks; they all use “bonds + interbank certificates of deposit” as the main allocation. This “one-thousand-products-the-same” pattern leaves investors without differentiated choices, ultimately evolving into pure yield comparison.

Puyi Standard’s analysis holds that macro interest-rate volatility and credit event shocks form the main risks in the external market environment. Since 2025, the yield on 10-year government bonds has undergone three rounds of intense volatility. Under such an interest-rate environment, net-value management for fixed-income products faces severe challenges. At the same time, multiple instances of non-standard default events involving urban investment platforms. Although these did not directly involve wealth management assets, through a risk transmission effect, they intensified investors’ concerns about allocating credit bonds, and the difficulty of fundraising for related credit-bond products increased significantly. In relatively extreme market conditions—when market sentiment is especially low and the issuance environment is very poor—issuance failures will occur. In addition, some products that issuing institutions previously rolled out in batches may also face difficulties in sales if the market changes. From the perspective of returns, even the performance of similar products already established can affect investors’ judgments.

The market enters an era of competition for existing stock

Of note is that closed-end net-value wealth management products are becoming less and less popular with investors.

“Closed-end fixed-income wealth management products come with a fixed lock-up period. During the holding period, they cannot be redeemed, so liquidity is inherently constrained. At present, investors generally are unwilling to let funds remain tied up for the long term. With insufficient fit on the demand side, subscription intent naturally stays low, making it even harder to raise funds. From the perspective of customer demand, open-end products are more favored by the market; but from the perspective of issuance supply, the number of closed-end products issued is actually far greater than that of open-end products. With a larger issuance base, cases of failed fundraising are also more likely to be noticed by the market,” said Zhou Yiqin, a senior expert in financial regulatory policy.

Other industry insiders at banks also said that because the probability of newly issued wealth management products failing has been gradually rising, it has directly led to a sharp reduction in the month-on-month growth rate of the number of newly issued products. There is also a phenomenon that is hard to observe: the growth rate of newly issued products declines, while the exit speed of existing stock products is faster. At some point this year, the entire bank wealth management market will reach a subtle balance.

It can be shown directly with data: As of the end of 2025, across the country there were 159 bank institutions and 32 wealth management companies with outstanding wealth management products; there were 46,300 ongoing products in total, up 14.89% from the beginning of the year. The outstanding scale was 3.329 trillion yuan, up 11.15% from the beginning of the year. But by the end of February 2026, the total number of bank wealth management products in the entire market was 47,518, up by 673 from January. Among them, there were 45,122 outstanding products and 2,396 newly issued products in the month. Fixed-income products have the most, with 43,897 in total, up by 682 month-on-month. In terms of issuing institutions, wealth management subsidiaries newly issued 1,866 products, accounting for 77.88% of the total issuance volume in the entire market. At month-end, wealth management subsidiaries’ wealth management products totaled 35,053, up by 736 month-on-month, accounting for 73.77%, up by 2.14 percentage points from January.

“If we compare by the number of outstanding products, we can see that in the first two months of this year the bank wealth management market decreased by more than 1,200 products. In the first two months of this year, newly issued products exceeded 5,000. By logic, by the end of February the number of bank wealth management products should be close to or reach 50,000, but the actual number increased by only more than 1,200. This also means that more outstanding bank wealth management products are maturing and exiting the market. And in terms of the growth rate of newly issued products, the growth rate in the first two months of this year is clearly lower than the same period last year; it has fallen from double-digit growth to single-digit growth,” Liang Bin analyzed.

Liang Bin believes that the current user scale of the bank wealth management market has reached its ceiling, the flow dividend period has ended, and the industry’s competition logic has shifted from acquiring incremental growth to enhancing existing stock. This shift means that the bank wealth management market no longer relies on an extensive customer-acquisition growth model; instead, it needs to achieve growth by improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

“In competition within the existing stock market, state-owned large commercial banks consolidate their leading position in the market thanks to their vast customer base and omnidirectional ecosystem embedding. Joint-stock banks choose a specialized and refined differentiated survival path, seeking breakthroughs by focusing on specific customer segments and professional barriers. City commercial banks and rural commercial banks have also shown rapid growth in this stage, but the differentiation is also quite significant. Facing challenges in the existing-stock market, the bank wealth management market needs further innovation and optimization of services to meet investors’ needs. This includes offering more personalized wealth management products and services, and using technology to improve operational efficiency and customer experience. At the same time, regulators may also introduce new policies and rules to promote healthy market development,” Liang Bin suggested.

Editor-in-charge: Xu Yunqi Editor: Gong Peijia