26 securities firms' asset management businesses compete fiercely, with revenue growth reaching up to 64% in 2025, and management scale stabilizing at the bottom.

Ask AI · Why can leading securities firms’ asset management revenue grow against the trend by over 60%?

Cailian Press, April 7 (Editor: Yang Bin) As the annual reports of listed securities firms for 2025 are gradually disclosed, the operating situation of the securities firm’s asset management industry is beginning to show initial signs.

From the currently announced data, the securities firm’s asset management business revenue exhibits a significant Matthew effect, with leading firms generally showing positive growth, with the highest revenue growth rate reaching 64% in 2025, while most small- and medium-sized firms’ asset management revenues decline. In terms of entrusted management scale, the industry shows a bottoming stabilization trend. Regarding product layout, the current key directions for securities firm asset management include FOF, ABS, cross-border investments, etc., and obtaining public fund licenses is no longer the only path for development.

26 securities firms’ net fee income from asset management totaled 40.9B yuan, an increase of 8.09%, showing a “the strong get stronger” pattern

Currently, 26 securities firms have disclosed their 2025 asset management business income, achieving a total net fee income of 40.9B yuan for the year, an 8.09% increase on a comparable basis. Among them, 13 firms achieved positive growth in asset management business revenue in 2025.

Chart: Listed securities firms’ asset management business revenue in 2025

(Source: Wind Data, compiled by Cailian Press, Huatai Securities data is based on parent company figures, excluding its asset management subsidiaries)

CITIC Securities is the only firm whose asset management business revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan, reaching 8B yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 15.90%.

CITIC Securities stated in its annual report that the asset management business and CITIC Securities Asset Management continued to upgrade their investment management systems in 2025, promoting professional, systematic, and refined investment research to achieve higher levels. Private equity asset management deepened the stratified management of strategy products, developed high-quality product lines, created clear and stable brand product series, and solidified a matrix customer marketing network based on “client groups × regions,” expanding service breadth and deepening service quality.

Eight firms saw their net fee income from asset management increase by more than 10%, with Guotai Haitong benefiting from the release of integration dividends, achieving significant growth with an increase of 64%.

Guotai Haitong’s annual report pointed out that the asset management business actively integrated into the group’s overall development, fully leveraging the unique advantages of securities firm asset management, and promoting rapid growth in FOF products, public quantitative products, and corporate wealth management scale. They deepened core investment research capabilities, continuously improved the product matrix, and performed well in characteristic products. Additionally, they served the national “dual carbon” goals and people’s livelihood security, increased innovation in products and service models, and successfully issued multiple green and carbon-neutral ABS products. Their overseas asset management business further enriched product lines and focused on fund mutual recognition products.

招商证券’s asset management revenue also grew by 21.72%. The annual report stated that they focused on building customized private equity products, strengthening the issuance of FOF and characteristic equity products to further diversify product offerings. In terms of overseas business, they concentrated on building a diversified product system, with a focus on launching ETF products to meet investors’ cross-border asset allocation needs.

Looking at the distribution of revenue growth, the Matthew effect in securities firm asset management is quite evident—“the strong get stronger.” Among the eight firms with asset management revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan, seven achieved growth; while among the 12 firms with asset management revenue below 500 million yuan, 10 experienced negative growth.

Huatai Securities, as a leading firm, saw its asset management revenue decline by 56.64% under the parent company figures in 2025. Dongwu Securities non-bank financial industry analyst Sun Ting commented that the decline was mainly due to the sale of Assetmark.

From Huatai Securities’ asset management subsidiary perspective, Huatai Securities Asset Management achieved revenue of 12.18B yuan and net profit of 2.21B yuan in 2025, an increase of 29.8% year-on-year. The growth was due to, on one hand, focusing on developing fixed income / fixed income +, equity, FOF, cross-border businesses, effectively increasing management scale; on the other hand, their investment banking asset management business deeply explored internal and external resources, continuously improved the synergy mechanism, actively targeted high-quality assets, and enhanced pricing capabilities, mainly through ABS and public REITs businesses to solidify growth.

Among small- and medium-sized firms, Xinan Securities, Dongxing Securities, Hualin Securities, Shouchuang Securities, Hongta Securities, and others saw their asset management revenues decline by over 20% in 2025. Shouchuang Securities’ asset management revenue in 2025 fell by 54.52% year-on-year; the annual report indicated that due to bond market conditions, the excess performance fee of their asset management products decreased, leading to a decline in business income.

Securities firms’ entrusted management assets bottoming out and stabilizing

In terms of asset management scale, 19 firms provided data on entrusted management assets for 2025, totaling 6.33 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 12%.

According to the latest report on securities firms’ operating conditions in 2025 released by the China Securities Association, by the end of 2025, the total net value of entrusted assets managed by securities firms reached 10.21 trillion yuan, a 5.49% increase; among these, collective and specialized asset management became the main sources of growth, with scales increasing by 13.48% and 14.49%, respectively. Notably, the proportion of collective asset management (33.72%) surpassed that of single asset management (32.84%) for the first time, indicating ongoing product structure optimization; non-fixed income asset management scale was about 3.60 trillion yuan, up 16%, with active management results gradually emerging.

Dongwu Securities non-bank financial industry analyst Sun Ting pointed out in a related research report that, as the transition period of new asset management regulations ends, the de-channeling of securities firm asset management business has basically been completed, and entrusted management assets are bottoming out and stabilizing.

Chart: Listed securities firms’ asset management scale at the end of 2025

(Source: Wind Data, compiled by Cailian Press)

Structurally, Guotai Haitong, Huatai Securities, Orient Securities, Guolian Minsheng, and Industrial Securities saw rapid growth in entrusted management assets in 2025, with growth rates around 30%.

Guolian Minsheng Securities also benefited from integration, with entrusted management scale increasing by 37.54% year-on-year in 2025. The company’s annual report stated that they are committed to delivering investment certainty, deepening professional and refined investment research, building a characteristic product spectrum, and achieving coordinated development of fixed income, equity, multi-asset allocation, and ABS businesses. Relying on digital and intelligent platform construction, they comprehensively enhanced active management capabilities and overall service efficiency, promoting steady growth in asset management scale and successfully entering the ranks of mid-sized asset management institutions.

Among small- and medium-sized firms, Xinan Securities’ entrusted management scale grew by over 70% in 2025. The company’s annual report indicated that asset management actively promotes business layout optimization and cooperation ecosystem expansion, achieving rapid growth in management scale. Private equity asset management adheres to a client-oriented approach, strengthens research capabilities, and actively promotes diversified product layouts, launching differentiated strategies such as pure bonds, fixed income +, equities, and FOF, effectively matching different risk preferences.

In recent years, the transformation of securities firm asset management toward active management has been a main trend, with diversified layouts and product innovation. From the disclosed annual reports, key directions for securities firm asset management include FOF, ABS, cross-border investments, and green products aligned with national strategies, greatly expanding the boundaries beyond pure bond investments.

Some industry insiders also stated that obtaining a public fund license is no longer the only path for securities firm asset management development. With limited licenses, firms can fully enhance competitiveness through diversified layouts and carefully selected management of existing products.

Since 2024, progress in securities firms’ applications for public fund licenses has been slow. By the end of 2025, all securities firm asset management subsidiaries that had been in queue for applications had withdrawn their requests.

Regarding future industry development trends, Huatai Securities pointed out in their annual report that in a market environment characterized by “low interest rates and high volatility,” providing investors with stable long-term returns has become a consensus. Asset management institutions need to return to their core service functions, innovate long-term and stable asset management products, and guide residents’ wealth to be long-term allocated through compliant channels. Meanwhile, they should continuously optimize capital and asset allocation strategies, strengthen research systems, deepen customer service capabilities, improve digital operations, and enhance customer investment experience to promote both domestic demand expansion and wealth appreciation.