Abnormal Phenomenon Of Fund Tail Service: It Is Difficult For Small And Medium-Sized Public Offering To "Buy Prosperity With Money"

In the first half of the year, the A-share market was on the rise, and the booming new funds greatly increased the management fees of fund companies, and the fund companies seemed to be making a lot of money.

At the same time, the customer maintenance fee paid by fund companies to sales agencies, which is commonly known as the follow-up Commission in the industry, has also gone up. The growth rate of 47% in the first half of the year far exceeds the 33% growth rate of the management fee.

In fact, at present, some fund companies have a strange phenomenon of "losing money and making money". For example, some small and medium-sized fund companies give more than half of the management fees to the channels, and the customer maintenance fees of hundreds of funds exceed the management fees.

However, the measures for supervision and administration of sales agencies of public offering securities investment funds, which will be implemented on October 1, provides solutions to the existing problems in fund sales. However, the 21st century economic report reporter interview survey found that the implementation of the new sales measures may also make some fund companies face some practical difficulties.

Management fees up 33%

According to Tianxiang investment consulting data (the sample includes 6448 funds of 141 fund companies which have published the interim report of 2020, the same below) statistics show that in the first half of 2020, the fund industry's management fee income was 39.926 billion yuan, an increase of 9.799 billion yuan over the same period of last year, with an increase of 33%.

Among them, the fund company with the highest management fee in the first half of the year was e fund fund with RMB 2.288 billion, followed by Tianhong fund with RMB 2.157 billion and GF fund with RMB 1.768 billion.

In the first half of the year, top 10 fund companies also included: huitianfu 1.688 billion yuan, Huaxia Fund 1.613 billion yuan, Harvest Fund 1.447 billion yuan, Xingzheng Global Fund 1.398 billion yuan, Fuguo fund 1.350 billion yuan, southern fund 1.334 billion yuan, Boshi fund 1.299 billion yuan.

The top three fund companies with the largest increase in management fees were GF fund, Xingzheng Global Fund and e fund, with an increase of 760 million yuan, 610 million yuan and 540 million yuan respectively, with an increase of 77%, 78% and 31% respectively.

It is worth noting that in the first half of the year, the fund company's management fees soared, while the growth rate of customer maintenance fees was faster.

"In the first half of the year, the equity market was booming, and fund companies were more enthusiastic to issue new funds, and many of them were established. In the context of the accelerated pace of equity fund issuance, in order to stimulate sales channels, the proportion of customer maintenance fees of fund companies increased." Zhang Ting, a senior researcher at GE Shang fortune, said.

According to the statistics of Tianxiang investment consulting, in the first half of the year, the customer maintenance fees paid by fund companies to sales agencies were 9.749 billion yuan, an increase of 3.098 billion yuan or 47% over the same period of last year.

Among them, 39 fund companies' customer maintenance fees increased by more than 100%, and 20 fund companies' customer maintenance fees increased by 50% - 100%,

The highest customer maintenance fee was e fund 559 million yuan, followed by Guangfa fund 513 million yuan and huitianfu fund 492 million yuan. In addition, there are eight fund companies in the first half of the customer maintenance fees between 300 million and 400 million yuan.

Fund company's customer maintenance fee generally rose sharply.

"There are a lot of new funds this year, mainly new equity funds. We all rush to develop funds. The bank's sales strategy is short and fast. We hope to sell out in one day, give the fund a one to three-day issuance schedule, and many fund products are waiting for appointment. The deadline is quite tight, which means that the channel resources are more tense, so the customer maintenance fee given by the fund has also increased." In this regard, a fund company said.

The 439 new funds set up this year have a total customer maintenance fee of about 900 million yuan.

A person from a medium-sized fund company said, "before 2008, customer maintenance fees were generally very low. At that time, there were not many fund companies and products, and the proportion of customer maintenance fees to management fees was about 30%. However, these years are generally high, especially for new fund companies, which are even 80% - 90%, but they will drop in the next year. For old companies, the first round is generally lower, but different companies have different bargaining power with different banks. The median ratio of customer maintenance fee to management fee may be 50% - 60%

A person from a large fund company said that the follow-up Commission of its new fund to the bank channel this year was about 60%.

Another large fund company, which frequently makes money this year, said that the follow-up Commission of the company's new fund to the bank channel is about 50%.

On the other hand, the follow-up Commission of old funds is relatively low. Generally speaking, "many large fund companies have brand premium and fund manager brand effect, and the customer maintenance fees to sales channels are relatively low, generally 20% - 40%, while small fund companies need to pay more fees to promote the enthusiasm of the sales channels to raise funds." Zhang Ting.

This year, there is a common phenomenon of "redeeming the old and buying the new". A person from a fund company said, "we hope to continue to market the old funds with good performance, but most banks want to develop new funds, and then the fund companies can only cooperate." redeeming the old and buying the new "is a business problem, and fund companies have no choice

Losing money and making money?

Even in the hot market in the first half of this year, the survival situation of small and medium-sized fund companies and newly established fund companies is not optimistic.

"This year, most of the hot money funds are concentrated in large and medium-sized fund companies, while the products of many small and medium-sized fund companies are relatively weak. In order to expand the scale of fund-raising or sales, they have to give higher customer maintenance fees to stimulate the enthusiasm of sales channels, so as to do large-scale and expand channels." Zhang Ting said.

According to the statistics of Tianxiang investment consulting, in the first half of this year, the average proportion of customer maintenance fees to management fees was 24.17%, compared with 21.63% in the same period last year, an increase of nearly 3 percentage points.

Among them, eight fund companies, such as Hengyue fund, Pengyang fund, Huarong fund and Zhuque fund, have paid more than half (more than 50%) to the channels when the management cost is small.

They are basically small or new funds.

For example, the management fee of Pengyang fund in the first half of the year was 141 million yuan, but the customer maintenance fee paid to sales agencies was 106 million yuan, accounting for 75% of the management fee.

Hengyue fund accounts for 85.57% of the management fee.

Specific to products, there are 156 funds whose follow-up Commission is higher than the management fee, which is equivalent to losing money and earning money. Most of them are index funds and fof funds.

"This phenomenon is actually a kind of follow-up Commission, that is to say, the commission rate for channel sales is relatively high, and the commission fee for customer maintenance may even exceed the income of management fee, which is also a relatively common phenomenon at present." Yang Delong, chief economist of Qianhai open source fund, explained.

"The management fees of index funds and fof funds are particularly low, far lower than those of stock funds. Some of them only have a few percent of the management fees a year, so the customer maintenance fees will exceed the management fees. If not, the channels may not have the motivation to sell." Yang Delong said.

For the small and medium-sized fund companies in sales difficulties, Zhang Ting said that at present, the market concentration of the public offering industry is constantly improving. The products of large fund companies are competitive, and the customer maintenance fees are relatively low. Small and medium-sized fund companies are relatively high. However, in terms of customer recognition, they are more willing to buy products managed by excellent fund managers. In the future, small and medium-sized fund companies need to pass the performance of the products Breaking through, it is difficult to retain investors only by customer service fee.

Disputes over new rules

On August 28, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued the measures for the supervision and administration of sales agencies of public offering securities investment funds (hereinafter referred to as the "sales measures") and supporting rules, which will come into effect on October 1, 2020.

According to the sales measures, the agreed ratio of the customer maintenance fee to the fund management fee shall not exceed 50% for the retention formed by selling to individual investors, and the agreed ratio of the customer maintenance fee to the fund management fee shall not exceed 30% for the retention formed by selling to non individual investors.

It seems that the "sales measures" have solved the problem that the maintenance fee of clients accounts for too much fund management fee which puzzles fund companies.

However, there is another side of the reality. It is good for fund companies to reduce customer maintenance fees. However, the amount of customer maintenance fees is actually a market behavior. The bank controls the customers of the fund, and the fund company is the weak side. The voice of customer maintenance fee is in the hands of the bank.

"Of course, the most vulnerable will be small and medium-sized fund companies." A fund company in Beijing said frankly.

If in the future, after complying with the provisions of the sales measures, the bank will increase its revenue measures in other aspects for the sake of profit, which will completely depend on the supply and demand situation of the market, and eventually form an industry practice.

"In terms of customer maintenance fees, banks have absolute bargaining power, and banks have the final say. As a fund company on the weak side, we should not only abide by the new regulations of the CSRC, but also hope to maintain the channels of bank customers. Therefore, we have no place to say anything, basically listen to the opinions of all parties, and then wait and see and accept the result of the deliberation." These large fund companies said.

Yang Delong said that the impact of the new sales regulations on the industry is mainly conducive to the development of medium and large funds, because large and medium-sized funds have advantages in channels and investment and research strength. In the past, small and medium-sized funds can attract channels to help sell through relatively high follow-up commissions. After the implementation of the new sales regulations, this path may be more difficult, and small and medium-sized funds will rely more on the industry Performance, or brand, to improve sales.

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