SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank’s China business has received a domestic fund custody licence from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the bank said on Thursday, showing how international financial services companies are keen to enter the country’s fast-growing fund market.
The licence, subject to what Deutsche Bank said was an “administrative process”, will allow the bank to hold securities for safekeeping on behalf of mutual funds and private funds domiciled in China.
Deutsche Bank follows Citigroup, which became the first U.S. bank to receive a fund custody licence in September.
“Many of our global institutional clients are actively exploring and acting on the unfolding opportunity to tap into the exponential China market, which is still fast growing and opening up,” Rose Zhu, Deutsche Bank’s China chief country officer, said in a statement. “At the same time, the booming domestic fund industry is looking for global expertise to foster further development.”
China’s growing fund market has attracted foreign asset managers, including Pimco, Baillie Gifford and Russell Investments to register with the Asset Management Association of China this year, to launch private local funds.
Companies, including BlackRock, Fidelity International and AllianceBernstein have also applied to set up wholly-owned mutual fund units in China this year.
(Reporting by Andrew Galbraith. Editing by Jane Merriman)
