Private pension scheme opens new racing track for financial institutes

Banks, funds and insurance firms, brokers and third-party agencies have rushed to compete in the "racing track" of private pension schemes, the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Tuesday.

The newly launched private pension scheme on Nov 25 has attracted 6.13 million active participants who contributed payments totaling 14.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) by the end of 2022, according to Qi Tao, deputy director of pension security of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Jan 18.

As of Nov 25, the first batch consisting of 23 banks has been qualified to open a fund account for the private pension, according to the Ministry. Multiple banks have given cash bonuses, vouchers, account integrals and fee deductions. For example, China Merchants Bank said via its APP that clients who open a fund account for a private pension at the bank can draw a cash packet with a value up to 288 yuan.

Brokers are more focused on reaching investors in security markets, most of whom are high-net-worth and higher-risk-preference. So far, a total of 14 security firms including Huatai Securities, CITIC Securities and GF Securities have launched the private pension services.

Third-party agencies with huge traffic and data resources are also unwilling to lag behind. Ant Fund, Tiantian Fund, Yingmi Fund and Xueqiu Fund have all launched private pension related-services.

According to Xueqiu Fund, China has a large population base that can participate in the private pension system. It is estimated that after about 10 years of development, the cumulative amount of private pension is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan, becoming an important part of the country's pension system.