3.166 Trillion Yuan! February Bank Wealth Management Scale Returns to Growth Track

In early spring 2026, China’s asset management market is ushering in a refreshing “spring breeze.” Against the backdrop of continued decline in macro interest rates and increasingly diversified resident wealth allocation needs, the bank wealth management market is undergoing a profound structural transformation. Latest data shows that in February this year, the bank wealth management market not only returned to growth but also made breakthrough progress in product structure optimization, equity asset allocation, and long-term capital guidance.

Bank Wealth Management Scale Rebounds to Growth Path

After a brief fluctuation in January, the bank wealth management market demonstrated strong recovery ability and resilience in February. According to the latest data from Puyi Standard, by the end of February 2026, the outstanding scale of bank wealth management products reached 31.66 trillion yuan, an increase of 87.439 billion yuan from the previous month, a growth rate of 0.28%. The total number of wealth management products in the market increased to 46,815, up 503 from January.

According to CICC, in February this year, 14 leading wealth management firms (including 6 state-owned banks and 8 joint-stock banks) with management scales exceeding 1 trillion yuan saw a combined month-on-month increase of about 700 billion yuan, successfully reversing the brief “poor start” in January. Although this scale still lags about 110 billion yuan behind the peak at the end of 2025, such a strong month-on-month rebound undoubtedly injects strong certainty into the market trend for the whole year.

Meanwhile, as the overall market warms up, the “ranking competition” among wealth management subsidiaries has become increasingly fierce. According to Wind data as of March 4, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, Industrial Bank Wealth Management, and China Trust Wealth Management continue to dominate the “20 trillion club.” Among them, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management leads with approximately 2.59 trillion yuan, followed by Industrial Bank Wealth Management (2.16 trillion yuan) and China Trust Wealth Management (2.08 trillion yuan). These three institutions leverage strong channel advantages and investment research capabilities to build a relatively wide moat.

The most notable is Everbright Wealth Management. According to Wind data as of March 4, its scale jumped from seventh place in early February to fifth, successfully surpassing Agricultural Bank Wealth Management and Bank of China Wealth Management. Based on a stable fixed-income foundation, Everbright Wealth Management has recently focused on mixed and equity-including products, which seems to be a key engine for rapid scale growth.

From a product structure perspective, the scale rebound in February was mainly driven by cash management and fixed income products. These two low-risk categories saw net increases of 7.7 billion yuan and 77 billion yuan respectively, becoming the main pools of capital inflow. In an environment of bond market fluctuations and declining risk-free rates, stable assets remain the preferred choice for investors.

Meanwhile, mixed products continued to grow positively, with a monthly increase of about 10.8 billion yuan. Although the growth rate slowed compared to January, the sustained positive inflow indicates that funds with moderate risk appetite are gradually testing the waters, attempting to achieve higher returns through diversified asset allocation.

Industry insiders believe that although the scale of wealth management products returned to growth in February with a relatively modest increase, it reflects that, amid falling deposit rates and narrowing yields on low-risk assets, some funds are gradually flowing back into the wealth management market. Additionally, wealth management firms are expanding diversified asset allocation strategies, with an increase in new equity-including products, enhancing product attractiveness.

Equity-Including Products Become Focus of Development

If the scale rebound is the “fundamental” of the market, then product structure optimization is the “new engine” for high-quality industry development. In February, the most striking change in the bank wealth management market was the explosive growth of equity-including products.

According to China Wealth Management Network data, in February, over a dozen leading institutions such as ICBC Wealth Management, ABC Wealth Management, CCB Wealth Management, and CIB Wealth Management issued a total of 33 hybrid wealth management products, a month-on-month increase of 120% and an annual increase of 83.33%. These new products cover diversified investment strategies such as IPO subscriptions, preferred stocks, and index rotation, demonstrating proactive and innovative asset allocation by wealth management companies.

The key reason for the sustained popularity of these products is their yield advantage. Puyi Standard monitoring data shows that in February, the average performance benchmark of open-ended hybrid products was 3.03%, significantly higher than the 1.83% average benchmark of fixed income products; closed-end hybrid products had an average benchmark of 2.38%, slightly above the 2.35% of closed-end fixed income products.

Industry insiders believe that the rising yields of equity-including wealth management products are mainly due to the good performance of the equity markets since the beginning of the year, with some products’ heavy holdings experiencing notable gains, thereby boosting their net asset values. Additionally, as regulators pay more attention to performance benchmarks, many products have adjusted their benchmarks to index-based or market rate-based measures to better reflect actual performance.

Looking ahead, under the continued “disintermediation” of deposits and the increasingly diversified wealth management needs of residents, the bank wealth management market is standing at a new development starting point. Ming Ming, Chief Economist at CITIC Securities, stated that the transformation of wealth management product structures toward equity-inclusion and diversification will effectively enhance the industry’s research and development capabilities and product innovation, promote the migration of household savings into the wealth management market, and inject long-term stable capital into the capital markets.

For wealth management companies, February’s data undoubtedly sends positive signals: the scale rebound demonstrates market resilience, while the volume of equity-including products indicates a firm commitment to transformation. As companies continue to optimize product design and diversify investment strategies, seeking better solutions between serving the real economy and meeting residents’ wealth appreciation needs, the bank wealth management market in 2026 is expected to make more solid progress through stability and innovation.