General Investors

Major investors are state-owned commercial banks, share-holding commercial banks, and nonbank financial institutions, which include securities companies, credit cooperatives, securities investment funds, and cooperatives. Other investors include small- and medium-sized financial institutions, corporate enterprises, foreign financial institutions holding Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) licenses, and retail investors. A complete list of authorized QFIIs are available at the link below.

Asset Pooling Industries

Pension Funds

Established in 2000, Social Security Fund (SSF) assets reached CNY171.1 billion in 2004. The National Insurance Law mandates that at least 50% of SSF funds are invested in bank deposits and government bonds, 40% in equities, and 10% in corporate bonds.

SSF manages a portion of its Treasury bond investments through government-appointed asset management companies: Changsheng Fund Management, China Asset Management, China Southern Fund Management, Harvest Fund Management, and Penghua Fund Management.

Insurance Companies

PRC has a limited number of insurance companies; 24 local insurance companies and 37 foreign-invested companies as of 2005. Insurance companies are allowed to invest funds in government bills and bonds, financial bonds, and corporate bonds with a credit rating of AA+ or higher. However, due to the insurance industry’s restrictive regulatory structure, insurers are limited to invest 2% of total assets or no more than 10% of any particular bond offering. Insurance companies total assets reached CNY1.19 trillion in 2005. China Life is the PRC’s largest insurer.

Asset Management Companies

The PRC has a growing mutual fund industry: 54 closed-end and 142 open-end funds as of end-2005. The Securities Investment Fund Law requires that 80% of fund assets be invested in equity and bond markets and at least 20% invested in Treasury bonds. There was CNY379.1 billion in funds under management as of end of 2005.

China’s largest fund managers are China Southern Fund Management, Hua’an Fund Management, and China Asset Management.