China Merchants to issue 9.16 billion yuan in asset-backed securities

China Merchants Bank will issue 9.16 billion yuan (HK$11.56 billion) in asset-backed securities on September 15, according to a filing from the lender at Chinabond, as mainland banks continue to diversify away from wealth-management products.

The deal will be underwritten by China Merchant Securities, Citic Securities and China International Capital Corp.

There has been more securitisation issued on the mainland this year than in the previous eight years combined, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

Mainland regulators opened the domestic market in 2005 but shut it down in 2008 during the global financial crisis. The market was reopened in 2012 but saw limited growth until this year.

Regulators have approved banks to issue a high volume of collateralised debt products this year with the hopes of steering them away from the wealth-management industry. Analysts said this was part of Beijing's drive to bring more discipline to bank lending.

In July, China Development Bank issued about 11 billion yuan in securitised debt, filings at Chinabond showed. China Postal Savings Bank also issued 6.8 billion worth of the securities that month.