Business / Policy Watch

New rules for online financial products

By Chen Jia (China Daily) Updated: 2014-03-01 10:57

The CSRC reminded investors that money market fund products are different from bank deposits and don't guarantee particular investment returns.

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"So we need to tighten supervision of money market funds to better protect investors' interests and prevent systemic risks," said Zhang.

The relatively high return rates offered by the new Internet financial products have attracted a fast-growing group of investors. According to Zhou Xiaoming, vice-general manager of Tian Hong, Yu'ebao had more than 81 million accounts as of Wednesday.

Total deposits stood at more than 400 billion yuan on Feb 14, up from 250 billion yuan on Jan 15.

Meanwhile, there's been sometimes heated discussion about the potential risks of these new innovations to China's financial system.

Niu Wenxin, the executive editor of CCTV's Stock Information Channel, penned a piece calling Yu'ebao "a vampire feeding on the blood of banks" and urging the authorities to ban it.

But on Sina.com, an online survey found that 91.6 percent out of 49,097 respondents opposed a ban.

On Wednesday, Yu'ebao reported its seven-day average annualized return rate was 6.093 percent, compared with its highest level of 6.763 percent on Jan 2.

A similar financial product provided by Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat cut its seven-day average annualized return rate to 6.196 percent. That rate peaked at 7.902 percent on Jan 29.

Meng Jing contributed to this story.