Tencent gets a licence to sell mutual funds to WeChat’s 1 billion users in China
Traditional finance houses now being seriously challenged in the wealth management market by emerging internet financial companies
Tencent has been granted a licence to sell mutual funds, as it continues expanding its financial services offerings.
Before gaining the licence, the tech giant was only able to act as a platform for fund houses and third-party fund sales companies to sell their products through qian.qq.com, its online wealth managing platform and its popular instant messaging tool, WeChat. Qian.qq.com is for users to access the service on PC, while a similar service on WeChat is for mobile users.
China’s market for reliable wealth management products is expected to explode in coming years, through the sales of funds and banking products, and traditional finance houses are now being seriously challenged in the market by emerging internet financial companies.
The Shenzhen Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the nation’s top securities watchdog, has given Tencent subsidiary Tengan Funds Sales (Shenzhen) the licence to sell funds directly.
