On November 8, 2017, “2017 China Assets Management Forum” was successfully held in Shanghai. This forum is jointly sponsored by Jingtian & Gongcheng and CBN. Officials from government authorities in “One Bank Three Commissions”, associations, experts on asset management, as well as business executives or risk control officers from various asset management organizations gave speeches, delivered keynotes and conducted round-table discussions. This forum got warm receptions in the circle and attracted over 300 professionals from assets management institutions like banks, trust companies, securities and futures companies, public funds and subsidiaries, insurance asset management companies and private funds.
2017 marks the beginning of supervision of China’s asset management industry. On the National Conference on Financial Work held in July 2017, President Xi Jinping reiterated the importance of financial regulation to prevent systematic financial risks, to speed up the legislation of relevant laws and regulations, to complete the legal corporate governance of financial institutions, to strengthen the macro prudential management system, to enhance functional supervision and to pay more attention to behavior supervision. This Conference further establishes the financial supervision pattern of coordination between “One Bank Three Commissions” and the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council led by the central bank, with respective responsibilities of the central and regional governments. Against this backdrop, the future of asset management has become a heated topic.
This forum is also timely. On the same day, approved by CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council was established and the first plenary session was held. On November 17, PBOC, together with CBRC, CSRC, CIRC and SAFE, drafted Guidance on Regulating the Asset Management Business of Financial Institutions (Draft) for public opinions.
The theme of the forum was “restructuring the financial regulation framework under separated regulation model”, and conducted round-table discussions on four topics across the jurisdiction of CBRC, CSRC and CIRC. Delegates discussed the hotspot, difficulties and future trend under the background of restructuring of financial supervision framework, and exchanged ideas on practical issues related to asset management like litigation and compliance mechanism, etc.
Cao Deyun, vice chairman and secretary general of China Insurance Asset Management Association delivered a speech titled “New Logic of China Insurance Assets Management Reform and Development in the New Ear”. He talked about the position and role of insurance capital in the new ear of financial regulation, with an eye on the key terms in the report of the 19th CPC National Congress like development, reform, innovation, security and technology, as well as the future of insurance asset management. Wang Mengjing, Deputy Secretary-General of Shanghai Pudong PE Investors’ Association shared with the audience the compliance and risk control issues of PE funds. Mr. Wang started with the goal of risk control, and continued on the relationship between government regulation and the level of risk control and company performance,
Yang Yudong, the Executive Chief Editor of CBN talked about the major risks on the financial market, called upon strengthening risk control on traditional businesses and new businesses, filling up weakness and blank in legislation, extending regulations to cover all risk and financial management, enhancing supervision and enforcement on violations. He hoped that the forum could help improve the new asset management regulation.
Zhang Hongwen, partner of Jingtian & Gongcheng delivered a speech titled “the current situation and trend of asset management industry under the new normal, and the role of law firms in asset management”. He pointed out that under the new normal, the competitive landscape of asset management industry is undergoing restructuring, and lawyers played a very important role in the development of asset management. Documents drafted by experienced lawyers in asset management deals can reduce or avert legal risks and were important tools to protect products and security of the projects. They are also the tools for asset management companies to fulfill their obligations of prudence, diligence and good-faith.
Sheng Songcheng, Counselor of PBOC and doctoral supervisor of Tsinghua University PBCSF talked about financial de-leveraging. Sun Haibo, Chairman of Faxun Finance, shared his thoughts on the separation and unification of asset management supervision.
Qin Maoxian, partner of Jingtian & Gongcheng, gave a keynote speech on “the current situation of separated supervision of asset management organizations and products, and unified regulation framework”. He discussed the issues in the separated supervision of asset management, analyzed the idea of macro prudential regulation of finance, and predicted on the future pattern of asset management regulation and supervision standards.
Deputy director of PICC Xu Yanan, Managing Director of Shanghai Yishan Asset Management Co., Ltd. Xu Xiaochun, director of Pacific Resources Asset Development, Inc. Yang Zhiqiang, senior director of Risk Control and Legal Compliance Department of China Insurance Investment Fund Xu Guang Lei participated in the round-table discussion of “the utilization of insurance capital and asset allocation under risk-oriented supervision”. Partners Zhong Peng and Xu Jiao moderated the discussion.
General Manager of Direct Banking Wealth Management of Zhongyuan Bank Sheng Xiaojun, Deputy General Manager of Financial Market Department of Zhongrong International Trust Li Zhibin, Business Director and General Manager of Asset Trust Headquarters of Shanghai AJ Trust Co., Ltd. Zhang Tianfei, Chairman of Faxun Finance Sun Haibo participated in the round-table discussion of “back to basics of bank’s asset management and establishing long-term mechanism of trust industry”. Partners Wu Jiejiang and Ren Guobing from Jingtian & Gongcheng moderated the discussion.
Guoyuan Securities Co., Ltd. Compliance Director Fan Shengbing, Bank of China Investment Management Co., Ltd. Legal and Compliance Department General Manager Xue Wencheng, Gopher Asset Management Co., Ltd. Senior Director of Legal Compliance Li Rui, CICC-Qianhai Development (Shenzhen) Fund Management Co, Ltd. Managing Director Jiang Shanjuan, Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited Assistant Vice President Liu Yunzhi participated in the round-table discussion of “development and challenges from the perspectives of securities and futures organizations and public and private funds”. Partners Zhou Xuan and Ye Yusheng moderated the discussion.
Director of the Legal Department of China Asset Management Co., Ltd. Chen Jian, head of Compliance and Risk Control of Shanghai Greenwoods Asset Management Co., Ltd. Qin Zijia, Board Secretary and General Manager of Compliance and Risk Control Department of Xiangcai Securities Zhou Weiqing, Chief Risk Officer of Shenyin Wanguo Futures Co., Ltd. Wan Xianzi, General Manager of Legal Compliance Department of Shenwan Hongyuan Securities Xie Kun participated in the round-table discussion of “litigation risks in asset management industry countermeasures”. Partners Sun Shiqi and Liu Xiyuan from Jingtian & Gongcheng moderated the discussion.
