The New Hierarchy in the 3.3 Trillion Wealth Management Landscape

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Ouyang Xiaohong / Text

When you habitually open your mobile banking and see the increasingly low interest rates, you feel worried: should you continue to keep your money in safe but low-yield fixed deposits, or switch to wealth management products with net value fluctuations? This constant tug-of-war between “earning a little more” and “not losing too much” is quietly reshaping the landscape of the wealth management industry.

On March 17, 2026, Puyi Standard released the 2025 Bank Wealth Management Capability Ranking Report. Rather than just a list, it can be seen as an industry stress test under low interest rates—who can absorb the money moved out of deposits and achieve a better balance between returns, risks, and customer experience will define the new hierarchy in the 33 trillion yuan wealth management market.

According to the Puyi Standard report, the top five comprehensive capabilities of national wealth management institutions are Industrial Bank Wealth Management, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, Everbright Wealth Management, and Bank of China Wealth Management; the top five in yield ability are Industrial Bank Wealth Management, Everbright Wealth Management, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, and Huaxia Wealth Management; the top five in operational management are Everbright Wealth Management, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, Ping An Wealth Management, Industrial Bank Wealth Management, and ICBC Wealth Management.

At first glance, this appears to be a ranking competition among wealth management institutions, but in the broader financial context, it resembles a deeper survival contest: who is better adapted to the new environment, who understands new customers more, and who can turn “customer trust” into a true competitive moat.

New Hierarchy

By the end of 2025, China’s bank wealth management market size reached 33.29 trillion yuan, an 11.15% increase from the beginning of the year; 33,400 new wealth management products were issued, raising 76.33 trillion yuan; the number of investors holding wealth management products reached 143 million, generating a total return of 730.3 billion yuan for investors throughout the year.

Behind this industry rebound is primarily a “transfer of deposits.” In the context of continuous decline in deposit interest rates, bank wealth management has once again become an important destination for residents’ savings due to its stability and low volatility. On one side, deposit rates keep falling, forcing funds to seek alternatives; on the other side, prior gains in the bond market have improved investors’ experience, easing their resistance to net value fluctuations. As a result, funds are flowing back into wealth management.

However, this does not mean the wealth management industry has returned to the era of “blindly buying and collecting at maturity.” Currently, the industry faces new challenges: on one hand, the contradiction between the downward shift of the income center and customers’ dulled risk appetite; on the other hand, stricter regulation and the scarcity of high-quality assets. Whoever can maintain scale, retain customers, and generate returns in this environment will no longer compete solely on the short-term performance of a single product, but on comprehensive capabilities including investment research, risk control, compliance, and service.

Looking back at these five leading wealth management institutions, what are they busy with?

When examining the recent moves of Industrial Bank Wealth Management, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, Everbright Wealth Management, and Bank of China Wealth Management, a clear strategic commonality emerges: they are no longer just competing on “yield numbers,” but are shifting toward systemic upgrades, product segmentation, channel expansion, information disclosure, consumer protection governance, and customer engagement.

Industrial Bank Wealth Management is focusing on infrastructure. Whether it’s upgrading product systems, optimizing customer outreach, or restructuring the product portfolio, these measures may not attract as much attention as “blockbuster products,” but fundamentally shape customers’ perception pathways—how they see products, how they understand them, and ultimately whether they are willing to hold them long-term. For top-tier wealth management institutions, systemic capability itself is a competitive advantage.

China Merchants Bank Wealth Management emphasizes synchronized advancement in scale, investment research, digitalization, and consumer protection. While managing over 2.3 trillion yuan and serving more than 28 million customers, it continuously discloses information on consumer rights protection and complaint handling, and pushes investment research and explanation capabilities to the front line of business. After scaling up, whether it can simultaneously build “explanation” and “response” capabilities will determine the stability of its leading position.

China Merchants Bank Wealth Management remains most like a “platform player.” In a low-interest-rate environment, it has not retreat into a single fixed-income track but continues to promote product innovation. Its deeper advantage lies in relying on the mature retail and wealth management ecosystem of its parent bank. In this era, product innovation is important, but the real moat is whether it can organically integrate clients with different risk preferences into a continuously operating, self-iterating wealth management ecosystem.

Everbright Wealth Management’s recent keywords are “scaling up” and “strengthening the pension label.” It is attracting stable, long-term funds flowing out of deposits and building longer-term, more stable customer relationships around pensions. This approach precisely aligns with the capital demands in a low-interest-rate environment—pursuing stability, emphasizing long-term assets, and seeking transparent, logical asset management.

Bank of China Wealth Management’s recent actions include disclosure governance, protocol upgrades, and channel expansion. For top-tier wealth management institutions, future competition is not just about “what products to develop,” but also about “how to disclose, how to reach customers, and how to help them understand what they are buying.”

By observing the strategies of these five institutions, a clear industry shift is evident: competition in the 33 trillion yuan wealth management market is evolving from “chasing short-term yields” to a systematic contest of “product, system, channel, disclosure, and experience.”

Rewritten Logic

What is quietly happening behind this ranking list may be a rewriting of the industry’s underlying logic.

As Wang Hongdong, Party Secretary and Chairman of China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, said, bank wealth management is at a critical transition from standardization to high-quality development.

He pointed out that bank wealth management needs to shift from a “asset management product perspective” to a “customer experience perspective,” moving from product sales to customer service.

In an environment of low interest rates, net value management, and strict regulation, this shift is not just a service upgrade but a rewriting of the rules of competition in the wealth management industry.

Fitch Ratings’ latest report in March states that China’s regulatory crackdown has improved transparency in non-bank credit intermediary activities under narrow definitions, making them easier to monitor and supporting the assessment that the operating environment for Chinese banks and non-bank financial institutions remains stable. Meanwhile, by the end of 2025, the outstanding scale of off-balance-sheet wealth management products was about 33.3 trillion yuan, equivalent to 24% of nominal GDP, down from the peak of 36% at the end of 2017, and the proportion of non-standard assets has fallen from 16% at the end of 2017 to 5% at the end of 2025.

Fitch also warns that improved transparency and governance do not eliminate potential credit vulnerabilities. Borrowers related to real estate, small private enterprises, and weaker local financing platforms may still expose tail risks under unexpected shocks.

In other words, the financial industry is more transparent than before, but making money is harder than ever.

For ordinary investors, the era of easily obtaining high returns through “surface-stable but complex” products is coming to an end. Conversely, if an institution can still offer relatively attractive and sustainable returns today, it is more likely relying on genuine asset management capabilities rather than the previous “fuzzy dividend zone.”

For wealth management institutions, relying solely on channel-driven volume and short-term high yields is increasingly insufficient for long-term advantage. The future depends on who can continuously provide a more stable sense of gain in a low-interest-rate environment: yields may not be the highest, but volatility is controllable; products may not be simple, but asset logic is clear; when markets fluctuate, institutions can proactively communicate and explain in a timely manner, rather than letting clients learn “risk lessons” from net value curves.

For regulators, this “strict regulation and heavy transparency” policy combination is redefining the quality of wealth management development.

Ultimately, this ranking not only assesses institutions’ asset allocation capabilities but also their responsiveness to clients.

(Author: Ouyang Xiaohong)