China’s efforts to tighten oversight of its $20 trillion-plus wealth management industry are spurring foreign banks to speed up plans to enter the local market or expand there, six people involved in the discussions said.
China’s wealth-management industry is the fastest-growing in the world but has historically been linked to the sale of high-risk, illiquid products and lax regulatory oversight.
Recently, however, officials have begun forcing domestic banks to separate their wealth-management businesses, a move sources said was aimed at improving governance as part of Beijing’s broader push to reduce debt and limit the sale of risky products.
