Recently, the China Securities Investment Fund Association released the top 100 list of public fund sales institutions in terms of the scale of public funds sold in the first half of the year, indicating changes in the distribution landscape.

It was noted that the disclosure frequency of fund distribution data has changed from quarterly to semi-annual for the first time.

At the same time, the statistical scope has been adjusted from "stock + mixed public fund scale" to "equity fund scale", and a new category of "stock index fund scale" has been added.

In the first half of the year, Ant Fund, China Merchants Bank, and Tiantian Fund continue to firmly hold the top three positions in the scale of non-monetary market public funds.

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Looking at the equity fund scale, Ant Fund, with its advantage in index funds, surpassed China Merchants Bank and topped the equity fund scale.

In addition, with the rapid development of the ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) market, the advantage of securities firms in index fund distribution has become more prominent.

In the first half of the year, securities firms accounted for more than half of the institutional equity index fund scale.

Industry insiders pointed out that under the current environment, the fund distribution market is accelerating the survival of the fittest, the Matthew effect in the industry is intensifying, and the market pattern will further differentiate.

The "big three" pattern has slightly changed.

In terms of equity fund scale, Ant Fund surpassed China Merchants Bank with an advantage in index funds and topped the equity fund scale with a scale of 692 billion yuan.

China Merchants Bank and Tiantian Fund ranked second and third in the scale of 467.8 billion yuan and 343.3 billion yuan, respectively.

Although the "big three" maintained a certain market position in the field of fund distribution, their performance in the first half of the year was different, and overall they were under pressure.

The 2024 semi-annual report of Hengsheng Electronics showed that although Ant Fund's operating income increased by 19.09% year-on-year to 7.554 billion yuan during the reporting period, net profit fell by 68.24% year-on-year to 94.274 million yuan.

China Merchants Bank's agency fund income in the first half of the year also fell by 25.35% year-on-year to 2.132 billion yuan, mainly affected by the reduction of fund fees and the decline in the scale and sales volume of equity funds.

However, its agency non-monetary public fund sales volume increased by 89.39% year-on-year to 28.9028 billion yuan, mainly adapting to the changes in customer risk preferences, and the sales volume of more stable bond funds increased year-on-year.

The 2024 semi-annual report of Orient Wealth showed that Tiantian Fund's operating income was 1.417 billion yuan during the reporting period, a year-on-year decrease of 29.64%; net profit was 64 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.08%.

As of the end of the reporting period, Tiantian Fund's cumulative fund sales volume was 10.86 trillion yuan.

Data from the China Securities Investment Fund Association shows that in terms of the scale of non-monetary market funds, Ant Fund, China Merchants Bank, and Tiantian Fund still firmly occupy the top three positions.

Looking at the scale of non-monetary market public funds in the first half of 2024, Ant Fund topped all public fund distribution institutions with a scale of 1.3512 trillion yuan, an increase of 78.9 billion yuan from the end of 2023.

China Merchants Bank and Tiantian Fund ranked second and third with a scale of 862 billion yuan and 552 billion yuan, respectively, an increase of 88.5 billion yuan and 2.4 billion yuan from the end of 2023, respectively.

Overall, the growth of the non-currency public fund scale of the top 100 institutions mainly comes from bond funds.

The research report of Guojin Securities shows that in the first half of 2024, the non-currency public fund scale of the top 100 institutions was 8.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 4% from the end of the previous year.

The equity fund and bond fund are declining and increasing, with the equity fund scale of 4.7 trillion yuan, a decline of 6% from the end of the previous year, and the non-currency fund excluding equity (mainly bond funds) scale of 4.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 17% from the end of the previous year, and the growth of the non-currency public fund scale mainly comes from the support of bond funds.

The advantage of securities channels in the distribution of index funds is prominent.

In the first half of 2024, the pattern of the fund distribution market changed, among which the newly added "equity index fund scale" is particularly eye-catching.

Looking at the scale of equity index funds, Ant Fund topped the list with a scale of 264.7 billion yuan in the first half of the year.

Huatai Securities and CITIC Securities' equity index fund scale in the first half of the year were 91.3 billion yuan and 89.2 billion yuan, respectively, ranking second and third.

In addition, the equity index fund scale of China Merchants Securities and China Galaxy Securities in the first half of the year both exceeded 40 billion yuan, ranking at the forefront of the list.

With the rapid development of the ETF market, the advantage of securities firms in the distribution of index funds has become more prominent.

In the first half of the year, securities firms accounted for more than half of the institutional equity index fund scale.

Among the top 20 institutions with the largest scale, 13 were securities firms; among the top ten institutions with the largest scale, 7 were securities firms.

The research report of Guojin Securities pointed out that this list disclosed the ranking of equity index fund scale for the first time, reflecting the increasing importance of passive investment in the market.

The equity index fund scale of the top 100 institutions was 1.4 trillion yuan, accounting for 29% of the equity fund scale.

Securities firms, with unique advantages in accounts and index design, are the main channels for the issuance of index products, with a market share of 57% among the top 100 institutions.

However, it is worth noting that the market share of securities firms' non-currency funds has declined from the beginning of the year, reversing the upward trend since the first quarter of 2023.

The research report of CICC pointed out that at the end of the second quarter of 2024, the market share of securities firms' non-currency funds was 18.1%, a decline of 2.2 percentage points from the beginning of the year.

The above phenomenon stems from the higher matching degree of securities firms' customer risk preferences and equity fund products, and securities firms actively choose passive products as relatively low-risk products in equity investment under the attribute of being closer to secondary market transactions.

The bond funds with the largest scale increase in the whole market in the first half of 2024 are not the specialty of securities firms.

At the end of the second quarter of 2024, the market share of securities firms' agency bond and other funds reached 10.5%, significantly lower than the market share of equity funds of 24.9%.

The Matthew effect is prominent in the equity fund scale.

There are 10 institutions with a scale of over 100 billion yuan, and 4 institutions with a scale of over 300 billion yuan.

Although the pattern of the industry leader has slightly changed, banks are still the "main force" in fund distribution.

Among the top ten institutions with equity fund scale, banks occupy 6 seats.

The differentiation of fund distribution institutions is obvious, with more than 40 distribution institutions with an equity fund scale of less than 10 billion yuan.

Yao Xusheng, a wealth manager at Paipai Network, pointed out that from the current market pattern, the bank channel still has the highest proportion, but the scale is beginning to be eroded by other institutions.

The share of third-party sales institutions is gradually rising, and the head effect is more obvious.

Securities firms are also increasing their share through the transformation of wealth management.

Direct sales of funds are gradually being valued by various public institutions.

Yao Xusheng further stated that under the current environment, the fund distribution market is also accelerating the survival of the fittest.

In recent years, some banks have chosen to actively withdraw from the fund sales business.

Some small sales institutions have also chosen to withdraw from the market due to low business scale and profitability that cannot cover operating costs.

With the further development of the fund industry, the requirements for professional level in public fund distribution business are increasing, and industry elite talents are gradually concentrating in leading institutions, and the market pattern will further differentiate.

The research report of Kaiyuan Securities pointed out that benefiting from the high prosperity of bond funds and ETFs, leading institutions with a complete product line and outstanding comprehensive advantages maintain a leading position in the industry, and small and medium-sized institutions with differentiated advantages achieve high growth in scale, and the Matthew effect in the industry is intensifying.

The reform of product fees has been implemented, and the competition of ETF fees continues to intensify.

It is expected that the standardization of channel fees will be completed before the end of 2024.

The decline in fees will bring certain pressure on the income elasticity of large wealth management business, and leading institutions may be able to better reflect comprehensive advantages in the competition of fees.