Bank Wealth Management Scale Increases Broadly in 2025; Structural Adjustments Accelerate in Low-Rate Environment

This trend is expected to continue into 2026.

As several bank wealth management subsidiaries disclose their 2025 operating data, the overall pattern of the banking wealth management industry is gradually emerging.

According to incomplete statistics from First Financial, 13 disclosed wealth management companies show that the industry generally achieved positive growth in 2025. Despite the ongoing decline in deposit interest rates and the strengthening of the “deposit disintermediation” trend, wealth management products still remain attractive to investors. Meanwhile, facing pressure on returns due to falling bond yields, wealth management firms are accelerating product restructuring, with an increased proportion of hybrid products. The “Fixed Income Plus” strategy is gradually becoming a key focus.

Industry insiders expect this trend to continue into 2026, but as the yields of underlying assets keep declining, the overall returns of wealth management products may face further pressure.

Growth in Scale

Currently, 13 wealth management companies that have disclosed their 2025 performance include Xingyin Wealth Management, Puyin Wealth Management, China Post Wealth Management, Suzhou Wealth Management, Hangzhou Wealth Management, Shanghai Wealth Management, Anhui Wealth Management, Hengfeng Wealth Management, Qingdao Wealth Management, Guangdong Wealth Management, SocGen Agricultural Bank Wealth Management, BlackRock Jianxin Wealth Management, and Huihua Wealth Management. Overall, these institutions have all seen year-over-year growth in management scale, continuing the expansion trend of the industry.

In terms of existing scale, Xingyin Wealth Management remains the industry leader, with a management scale exceeding 2.43 trillion yuan as of the end of 2025; Puyin Wealth Management ranks second with 1.47 trillion yuan. Several city commercial bank-based wealth management firms also maintained steady growth, with Suzhou Wealth Management and Hangzhou Wealth Management managing scales of 8,262 billion yuan and 6,076 billion yuan respectively.

Regarding growth rates, nine firms achieved double-digit growth, with foreign joint ventures showing particularly notable increases. For example, SocGen Agricultural Bank Wealth Management’s scale grew from 48.7 billion yuan at the end of June 2025 to 89.3 billion yuan, an increase of over 80%. BlackRock Jianxin Wealth Management and Huihua Wealth Management grew approximately 20% and 37%, respectively.

The overall industry scale is also expanding. According to the Bank Wealth Management Registration and Custody Center, by the end of 2025, the total outstanding balance of bank wealth management products nationwide reached 33.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.34 trillion yuan for the year, up 11.15% year-over-year.

Many industry experts believe that the continuous decline in deposit interest rates is a key driver of the growth in wealth management scale. In recent years, residents’ funds have gradually shifted from traditional bank deposits to wealth management and fund products, with the “deposit relocation” phenomenon ongoing.

Looking ahead to 2026, the market generally expects this trend to persist. Huaxi Securities estimates that the outstanding scale of wealth management products may increase by 1.5 trillion to 2.3 trillion yuan in 2026. The reasoning is that, on one hand, bank deposit interest rates are still on a downward trajectory; on the other hand, large high-yield deposit products issued earlier are gradually maturing, and during the reallocation of funds, wealth management products remain an important destination.

“New funds for wealth management in 2026 may mainly flow into short-term fixed income products, especially those with a ‘minimum holding period.’ These products offer a balance of liquidity and stable returns, making them a key focus for wealth management firms,” said Liu Yu, Chief Economist at Huaxi Securities.

However, competition for funds is intensifying. Industry insiders note that, in the context of declining deposit interest rates, insurance products like dividend insurance may divert some funds, but the overall impact is expected to be limited.

Growth of Hybrid Wealth Management

Despite the continuous expansion of wealth management scale, the product structure is changing amid declining asset yields.

From a product perspective, fixed income products still dominate, but the share of hybrid products is gradually increasing. According to the Bank Wealth Management Registration and Custody Center, by the end of 2025, the outstanding scale of fixed income wealth management products was 32.32 trillion yuan, accounting for 97.09% of total wealth management scale, a slight decrease of 0.11 percentage points from June 2025; hybrid products’ scale was 870 billion yuan, increasing their share to 2.61%.

At the level of individual firms, this change is even more pronounced. For example, Xingyin Wealth Management’s fixed income products totaled 2.26 trillion yuan at the end of 2025, accounting for 98.19%, down 0.62 percentage points from mid-2025; hybrid products reached 34.9 billion yuan, nearly doubling from mid-year, with their share rising to 1.52%.

In response to these changes, Wang Pengbo, Chief Analyst at Bo Tong Consulting, stated that, given the persistently low bond yields, traditional pure fixed income strategies are difficult to meet investors’ moderate return expectations. Therefore, wealth management firms are expanding investment scope and increasing equity asset allocation to seek higher yields.

“Hybrid wealth management products are more flexible in stock-bond allocation and can dynamically adjust based on market conditions, which is an inevitable choice as the industry deepens its transition to net asset value-based management,” he said.

In recent years, the “Fixed Income Plus” strategy has become a main focus for wealth management firms. These products typically focus on bonds and other stable assets, while allocating a small portion to equities or commodities to enhance returns.

Guoxin Securities analyst Kong Xiang pointed out that, for example, some joint-stock bank wealth management products benchmarked against bond indices allocate about 10% of their assets to stock indices to boost returns. Through industry-balanced allocation, they achieved over 7% annual net value growth in 2025 despite significant stock-bond market volatility, with maximum drawdowns kept within 1%.

Gold assets have also become an important tool for enhancement. Some city commercial bank products, by investing in gold ETFs, achieved noticeable excess returns in 2025.

However, in a low-interest-rate environment, the overall yield levels of wealth management products continue to decline. Data from securities firms shows that, as of February 2026, the average performance benchmark upper limit for newly issued RMB fixed income wealth management products was 2.69%, with a lower limit of 2.16%. Industry insiders expect that the lower limit of new product benchmarks may gradually approach 2.0%.

Meanwhile, yields on cash management products remain low. As of March 1, 2026, the average seven-day annualized yield of cash management products was about 1.25%, close to the 1.11% level of money market funds.

Monthly Wealth Management Scale Rebounds, Yields Decline

Recent market performance shows that, after a brief fluctuation at the start of the year, wealth management scale has rebounded.

Multiple institutions estimate that the wealth management market scale increased significantly in February 2026. Huayuan Securities estimates that, as of the end of February, the total scale of wealth management products was about 33.3 trillion yuan, an increase of approximately 0.8 trillion yuan from January.

Huayuan Securities analyst Liao Zhiming pointed out that the temporary decline in January was mainly related to the “opening red” campaigns of banks. Early in the year, banks focus on deposit and loan growth, and some wealth management managers may encourage clients to redeem products to increase deposits. Additionally, regulatory measures to curb “ranking” of wealth management returns also temporarily affected growth.

After February, as the effects of the Spring Festival fade and year-end bonuses are paid, residents’ funds flow back into wealth management products, leading to a market scale rebound. Data from Puyi Standard shows that, as of the end of February 2026, there were 16,091 open-ended wealth management products on sale, accounting for 88.3% of all products, with an average performance benchmark of 2.05%, slightly lower than the previous month.

In terms of actual returns, the annualized yields of open-ended fixed income products over the past 1, 3, and 6 months were approximately 2.33%, 2.27%, and 2.23%, showing a downward trend.

Faced with yield pressures, some wealth management firms are more actively participating in capital markets. For example, some are engaging in IPO “subscribing” in A-shares and Hong Kong stocks to generate additional income; others are allocating to gold ETFs or launching gold-linked products to enhance portfolio returns.

Industry experts believe that, in the current environment of low interest rates and market volatility, wealth management products are likely to develop further toward multi-asset and multi-strategy allocations.

Liu Yu stated that, as the yields of underlying assets continue to decline and the recent gains in the bond market are gradually absorbed, future returns of wealth management products may remain under pressure. To cope with this, firms might increase equity allocations, utilize public fund investments, and participate more actively in capital markets to improve product return flexibility.