Exclusive | End of Two Months of Decline! 14 Major Wealth Management Companies "Recovered" Over 700 Billion Yuan in February

After a brief shadow of “poor opening” in January’s ongoing scale, bank wealth management rebounded in February.

According to exclusive data compiled by Securities China from trusted industry sources, in February this year, 14 major wealth management companies (including 6 state-owned banks’ wealth management and 8 joint-stock banks’ wealth management) had a total of over 7 trillion yuan in existing products, a month-on-month increase of more than 700 billion yuan, but still about 110 billion yuan lower than at the end of last year.

In 2026, when traditional coupon strategies are unlikely to generate ideal returns, fixed-income products continue to see declining yields. Equity-linked wealth management products with higher yield elasticity are becoming an important focus for wealth management firms to stabilize scale and improve efficiency.

Wealth Management Scale Recovers and Grows, Monthly Increase Exceeds 700 Billion Yuan

Driven by Spring Festival marketing, bank wealth management experienced a scale rebound in February, ending two consecutive months of contraction.

Based on past experience, the period before the Spring Festival is a key window for commercial banks to promote “good start” campaigns, focusing on deposits, loans, and asset management products. However, this year, the scale growth from wealth management “good start” was relatively slow. In January, the scale shrank by 81.5 billion yuan; the cumulative increase over the first two months was not significantly different from previous years.

Exclusive data from Securities China shows that, as of the end of February, the top 14 wealth management companies had a combined outstanding product scale of 25.3 trillion yuan, an increase of about 703.5 billion yuan from January, but still about 112 billion yuan below the scale at the end of 2025. More than half of this increase came from six “2 trillion yuan camp” wealth management firms.

Looking at new product issuance, Puyi Standard data indicates that in February, affected by the Spring Festival holiday, 2,015 new wealth management products were issued with an initial fundraising scale of 299.5 billion yuan, less than half of January.

Liao Zhiming, Chief Fixed Income Analyst at Huayuan Securities, believes that since the Spring Festival was later this year, banks’ focus in January was often on the “good start” of deposits and loans. Wealth managers may have guided clients to redeem wealth management products temporarily to boost deposit scales. Additionally, regulatory actions reported first by Securities Times, targeting irregularities in wealth management yield rankings, are believed by many industry insiders to have had a temporary impact on growth.

From a single institution perspective, as of the end of February, the top six wealth management firms by scale were: China Merchants Bank Wealth Management (2.65 trillion yuan), China CITIC Bank Wealth Management (2.46 trillion yuan), Industrial Bank Wealth Management (2.41 trillion yuan), Everbright Wealth Management (2.03 trillion yuan), ICBC Wealth Management (2.03 trillion yuan), and Agricultural Bank Wealth Management (2.01 trillion yuan).

Notably, China CITIC Bank Wealth Management’s monthly growth exceeded 110 billion yuan, surpassing Industrial Bank Wealth Management to rank second; Everbright Wealth Management’s monthly increase was about 79 billion yuan, marking its first entry into the “2 trillion yuan club” and ranking fourth; also, CCB Wealth Management’s scale at the end of February rebounded by about 110 billion yuan, but still below the early-year high.

Regarding product offerings, in February, cash management products saw a slight increase compared to the end of January, with a total increase of about 150 billion yuan across 14 institutions, but overall outstanding scale still shrank by 350 billion yuan from the beginning of the year. Puyi Standard data shows that as of the end of February, the average annualized yield of outstanding cash management wealth management products was 1.25%, down 0.02 percentage points month-on-month.

Looking ahead to 2026, industry optimism remains about whether deposit shifts can continue to bring incremental funds to wealth management. Liao Zhiming notes that historically, scale growth mainly occurs in Q2 and Q3, and estimates that the scale of wealth management in 2026 will grow by about 3 trillion yuan.

Tianfeng Securities analyst Tan Yiming estimates that conservatively, wealth management could absorb about 1 to 2 trillion yuan of deposit shifts in 2026; combined with organic growth of the wealth management scale itself, total growth could reach nearly 3 trillion yuan.

Tan Yiming believes that in the short term, deposit shifts are still ongoing, and with wealth management still holding advantages in channels and pricing, some absorption is feasible. However, from a medium- to long-term perspective, if product holding experiences remain poor, there is a risk of client attrition. The process from clients noticing decreased holding satisfaction to actual “re-escape” takes time, adding uncertainty to this process.

Weakening Yields, Strong Push for Equity-Linked Products

In February, wealth management yields weakened slightly, while equity-linked products were aggressively promoted—this was a prominent feature of the market.

According to Puyi Standard data, as of the end of February, the average annualized return of wealth management products over the past year was 2.476%, down 0.74 basis points from the previous month; cash management products continued to decline, with an average annualized yield of 1.3379%, down 2.28 basis points; fixed-income products rebounded to 2.5128%; hybrid and financial derivative products experienced large fluctuations and declines; equity products had an average return of 18.95% over the past year, increasing by 453 basis points from the previous month.

Huayuan Securities’ fixed income and banking team report indicates that in February, the average annualized yields for fixed income and pure fixed income wealth management products fell to 2.17% and 2.27%, respectively. They also predict that as interest rates and bond yields decline, the average performance benchmark for new wealth management products may decrease from 2.16% to lower levels.

Guoxin Securities’ non-bank financial industry chief analyst Kong Xiang believes that long-term, the benchmark yields for wealth management products are declining, which forces firms to increase yield enhancement strategies. Recently, strategies involving equities and gold have been especially favored. In the current low-interest, high-volatility environment, “Fixed Income Plus” products that utilize cross-market and multi-asset allocation strategies have effectively improved risk-return profiles, with recent focus on equities and gold assets.

Supporting data shows that as of the end of February 2026, the total outstanding wealth management product scale was 3.166 trillion yuan, with fixed income (excluding cash management) products still dominant at 2.417 trillion yuan, accounting for 76.36%, up slightly by 0.02%; cash management products totaled 663 billion yuan, accounting for 20.93%, down 0.04%; hybrid products increased to 809.2 billion yuan, making up 2.56%, up 0.03%. This indicates that in the environment of weak bond yields, wealth management institutions are accelerating diversification into multi-asset strategies to seek higher yields.

In 2026, with traditional coupon strategies unlikely to deliver ideal returns, equity-linked products with higher yield flexibility have been heavily promoted by many wealth management firms and banks early in the year. According to China Wealth Management Network data, in February, as many as 32 hybrid products with higher equity linkage were issued, a significant increase from 15 in January and 18 in February last year, reaching record high monthly sales.

These hybrid products include strategies such as IPO plays, preferred stocks, and index rotation. Tang Hujun, General Manager of Quantitative Investment at Ping An Wealth Management, told Securities China that on one hand, in a declining interest rate environment, traditional fixed income yields are under pressure, necessitating increased equity exposure; on the other hand, rising global market uncertainties make multi-asset allocation a key risk-diversification tool, and hybrid products are entering an important allocation window.

Layout: Luo Xiaoxia

Proofreading: Liu Rongzhi