The way for banks to break through low-interest-rate financial management: mining for private placements and IPOs, advancing further in the equity track

As time-deposit interest rates move into the “1” range, low yields have become a key feature of today’s financial markets. New challenges are gradually emerging between residents’ demand for steady and value-preserving wealth growth and changes in traditional wealth-management returns.

For the bank wealth-management industry, the era in which it relied on “lying down and winning” with fixed-income assets is completely over. Multi-asset allocation is no longer optional; it is the required answer to survival and development. To break through return bottlenecks and retain customers’ funds, bank wealth-management firms have been stepping out of their comfort zones and actively pushing into the equity market. Among them, private placements by listed companies and IPO subscription for new shares have become the two most favored breakthrough paths. Since this year began, multiple wealth-management companies have accelerated their deployment. Judging from the performance disclosed so far, they have already achieved solid investment returns.

Bank wealth management’s deployment in listed-company private placements

On March 25, Orient Tantalum Industry released its “Announcement on the Listing of Stocks Issued to Specific Targets” (向特定对象发行股票上市公告书). It will issue an additional 22.5959 million shares to specific targets, which will be officially listed on March 27, 2026, on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. What caught the market’s eye was that Postal Savings Wealth Management was among the participants. It is reported that Postal Savings Wealth Management subscribed for 0.5697 million shares of Orient Tantalum Industry at a price of 52.66 yuan per share, with an allocated amount of 29.9999 million yuan, and the shares are subject to a lock-up period of 6 months.

Postal Savings Wealth Management is just a snapshot of wealth-management firms’ participation in equity investments this year. Recently, SuYin Wealth Management, leveraging a coordinated and linked operating mechanism with its branch in Jiangsu Bank, participated in Jiangsu Yanshen Co., Ltd.’s (SuYen JingShen) 2025 annual A-share private placement to specific targets, with an allocated amount of nearly 50 million yuan. It has already completed issuance registration and listing work.

The approximately 173 million A-shares issued by SuYen JingShen to specific targets have completed registration, custody, and lock-up procedures. It is reported that a total of 14 issuance participants were ultimately allocated in this issuance, with total fund-raising of about 1.8 billion yuan. The funds will mainly be used for the company’s underground gas storage brine salt comprehensive utilization engineering project.

A relevant spokesperson from SuYin Wealth Management said, “This is the first listed-company private placement project we participated in this year. Since the policy for bank wealth-management funds to enter the market was introduced in 2025, we have participated in private-placement projects of two Jiangsu-listed companies.”

The reporter, based on publicly available information, found that in addition to the two wealth-management firms mentioned above, subsidiaries such as Everbright Wealth Management and BOC Wealth Management have also completed investments in private-placement projects.

Bank wealth management’s participation in listed-company private placements began in 2025. In January of that year, six departments including the Central Financial Office and the CSRC jointly issued the “Implementation Plan on Promoting Medium- and Long-Term Funds to Enter the Market” (《实施方案》). In March of the same year, the CSRC and the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges revised the administrative measures and implementing rules for securities issuance and underwriting. The barriers to bank wealth-management firms directly participating in listed-company private placements were cleared. Under the relevant regulations, when participating in new-share subscriptions, listed-company private placements, and the recognition standards for share-price increases and “acting in concert” (举牌), bank wealth management, insurance asset management, and public funds receive equal policy treatment.

Everbright Wealth Management was quick to seize opportunities and “drank the first broth.” In April 2025, Everbright Wealth Management participated through its asset management plan in a targeted issuance for Outer Harbor Holdings (外高桥). At that time, there were 11 institutional subscribers in total for Outer Harbor’s targeted issuance. Everbright Wealth Management’s subscription size ranked 10th. It was allocated 1.8149 million shares and about 20 million yuan. After the issuance was completed, there was a 6-month lock-up period.

When some bank wealth-management subsidiaries participate in private placements of listed companies, they often maintain close coordination with their parent banks. For example, when BOC Wealth Management participated in a private placement by Beijing Automotive Group Blue Valley (北汽蓝谷), Bank of Beijing not only served as the recommender for the private placement project, but also acted as the fund regulatory bank for the募集资金 for the targeted share issuance by Beijing Automotive Group Blue Valley, as well as the distributor of private wealth-management products.

Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank, said that bank wealth-management funds directly participating in private placements is a concrete manifestation of wealth-management funds leveraging their financial service functions to serve the real economy. It makes effective use of wealth-management funds and can also enrich the sources of funds in the capital market.

Liu Youhua, Director of Research at PAI Research and Wealth, believes that in the context of falling interest rates, bank wealth-management participation in listed-company private placements is a strategic choice to expand asset allocation and respond to the “asset shortage.” Moreover, the private-placement discount can provide an earnings safety cushion. This move will push wealth-management businesses to transition from being fixed-income-focused to a diversified “fixed-income+” allocation model, forcing them to enhance their investment research capabilities and advance toward a more proactive management approach.

However, Liu Youhua also noted that although private placements are a way for bank wealth-management to expand new investment channels, new opportunities also mean new challenges. For bank wealth management, participation in stock private placements currently faces issues such as mismatched fund tenors (the conflict between short-term wealth-management products and long-term private placements), relatively weak capabilities in equity investment research, and lower acceptance of net value volatility among conservative clients.

Bank wealth-management subsidiaries are actively exploring participation in private placements by listed companies and other capital-market investments. At present, although the number of bank wealth-management subsidiaries participating in listed-company private placements is gradually increasing, compared with asset-management institutions such as public funds, there are not many cases of bank wealth-management subsidiaries both participating in listed-company private placements and realizing them on the ground.

Bank wealth management has deeply participated in IPO subscriptions for new shares

In addition to private placements, bank wealth management has participated even earlier and more deeply in IPO subscription for new shares, with top-tier institutions showing especially strong enthusiasm. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Wealth Management and Postal Savings Wealth Management have recently disclosed, through official channels, progress in investing in newly issued Hong Kong IPOs. The investment targets cover emerging industries such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and biopharmaceuticals.

According to disclosures from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Wealth Management, as of January 16, 2026, all 10 of the company’s Hong Kong IPO investments have achieved positive returns, with the highest gain reaching 165.45% for a single deal. The company’s deployed Hong Kong IPO projects focus on areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, and high-end equipment. For example, domestic memory-chip leader Zhaoyi Innovation, AI drug-discovery leader Inceptio Technologies, domestic GPU core company Biren Technology, TianShu ZhiXin, and others.

Since the beginning of 2026, Postal Savings Wealth Management has participated in targets including Lanqi Technology (澜起科技), MiniMax, and Biren Technology (壁仞科技). Multiple cornerstone heavy-allocated projects saw sharp gains on their first day of listing. In addition, Postal Savings Wealth Management has recently累计 (cumulatively) conducted research on more than 70 companies, covering fields such as TMT, advanced manufacturing, emerging consumption, and healthcare.

Beyond the Hong Kong market, multiple wealth-management companies have also actively participated in A-share IPO offline allocation. As of March 4, 2026, three companies—Ningbo Bank Wealth Management, Xingyin Wealth Management, and Everbright Wealth Management—had cumulatively participated in 96 rounds of initial inquiries in the A-share listing process (including the same listed company), and achieved successful price quotations 85 times. Among them, Ningbo Bank Wealth Management and Xingyin Wealth Management successfully received allocations 42 times and 34 times, respectively.

Xue Hongyan, a special correspondent researcher at Merchant Bank of SuShang, admitted that based on current practice, bank wealth-management subsidiaries participating in Hong Kong IPO “new-share subscriptions” have formed a pattern led by leading institutions, focused on hard-technology tracks, and with product forms extending toward more inclusive offerings. Smaller and mid-sized institutions, constrained by capital and investment-research strength, are more inclined toward A-share offline “new-share subscriptions” with lower thresholds and familiar processes.

From a product perspective, products that participate in “new-share subscriptions” are characterized by a structure of “a steady core position plus oversubscribed new-share subscriptions.” However, it should be noted that although new-share subscription-style wealth-management products are gradually expanding toward inclusive products, they still concentrate more on wealth-management services for high-end private banking clients. For example, take Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Wealth Management: its three “fixed-income+ Hong Kong IPO” strategy products all have a risk level of PR3 (medium risk) and use a combination structure of “steady core position plus oversubscribed new-share subscriptions.” Of these, two are for private banking clients, while the other is offered for sale to individual investors via the online banking platform.

Su Xiaorui, Senior Researcher at Suxi Zhiyan, analyzed for the reporter that in the current low-interest-rate macro environment, as the yields of traditional fixed-income assets continue to decline, private placements and new-share subscriptions have become important tools for bank wealth-management firms to break through “asset shortages” and enhance returns.

“This move will drive wealth-management businesses to transition from being fixed-income-oriented to a diversified ‘fixed-income+’ allocation model, forcing them to improve their investment-research capabilities and advance toward a more proactive management model,” Liu Youhua said.