A Study On The Supervision Of Asset Management Products From The Perspectives Of Historical Course And Feasible Improvement

Regulations on asset management business in each financial sub-sector,including banking,securities,trusts,have been loosened since 2010.A number of hybrid asset management products emerged,while the definition of asset management business and the corresponding regulatory principles still lay in vague.In the context of separate operations and separate industry regulation,asset management products issued by different financial institutions are subject to different investment thresholds,qualified investor standards,resulting in regulatory arbitrage or vacuum.The Guiding Opinions on Regulating Asset Management Business of Financial Institutions(hereinafter referred to as the “Guiding Opinions”)promulgated in April 2018 proposed the concepts of “combination of institutional supervision and functional supervision” and “infiltration supervision”.The Measures for the Administration of the Privately Offered Asset Management Business of Securities and Futures Business Institutions and the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of the Wealth Management Business of Commercial Banks and other supporting regulations is gradually implementing the concept of book management.Although asset management industry is still in the context of independent industry and institutional supervision,but it starts to be integrated in different financial industries.It has similar concepts with the reform of financial regulatory models in the United Kingdom,the United States,Japan and South Korea.This article is composed of four chapters:The first chapter clarifies the research object and research scope.This chapter gives an introduction of the historical development of asset management business,sorts out the regulatory framework of asset management business and summarizes the issues arising from asset management industry.This chapter gives an explanation on the causes of so-called “general asset management” by analyzing the laws and regulations applicable to asset management business.Due to the separation supervision mode,applicable laws and regulations under different financial departments have set up different standards for asset management products which provides the possibility of evading financial regulatory requirements through a multi-layered product structure.The second chapter focus on the asset management supervision model represented by the Guiding Opinions issued in April 2018.The Guiding Opinions is the very first regulation to regulate the asset management business of various financial institutions in a comprehensive way.However,despite its position as a landmark piece of legislation,there are still many issues in relation with the Guiding Opinions.The normative hierarchy of the Guiding Opinions is in a rather inferior level to reshape of the supervision structure of asset management products,and the regulatory concepts contained therein needs to be refined.In addition,the implementation of the supervision methods described in the Guiding Opinions needs to be specified,for example how to achieve information communication between different financial authorities and how to achieve the balance between supervision effect and supervision costs.The third chapter expounds the different supervision modes and supervision concepts behind the asset management supervision from a rather macro perspective.This chapter selects the United States,Japan and South Korea as representative cases.Among the aforesaid countries,the financial supervision of United States represents a moderate reform path guided by the concept of functional supervision,under which uniform regulatory laws and regulations are applicable to products with the same nature.The financial supervision system of United States retains a multi-headed regulatory system and federal and state authorities coexist in the regulatory system.Japan and South Korea adopt a more radical functional supervision mode by consolidating multiple financial regulations into a financial law.Their financial laws created a new concept,collective investment scheme,to expand the scope of securities.The Japanese and Korean regulatory system applicable to financial products is based on a unified regulatory body and regulatory rules.The fourth chapter addresses the issue of financial regulation reform and analyzes the feasible path to improve the supervision of asset management products.In 2018,China Banking Regulatory Commission and China Insurance Regulatory Commission merged into a new regulatory author,China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission,and the regulatory structure is decentralized.The main regulatory mechanism remains the institutional supervision,but financial regulatory standards are moving toward a unified system.To improve the regulation of asset management product,he basic legal relationship of asset management products shall be based on trust law,and a unified regulatory system,including a coordination mechanism among regulators and universal regulatory rules,is required for the asset management industry.