Farewell to reliance on parent banks: all 32 wealth management subsidiaries have opened non-parent bank distribution channels.

Today, wealth management subsidiaries have officially entered the era of "universal distribution."

As of the end of May, Goldman Sachs ICBC Wealth Management signed the "Main Agreement for Agency Sales Service of Wealth Management Products" with Industrial Bank;

With this, all 32 domestic wealth management companies that have commenced operations have opened distribution channels through banks other than their parent bank, completing the last piece of the puzzle in the years-long channel-opening process for the bank wealth management industry.

The completion of this milestone means that wealth management companies' single dependence on parent bank channels is further weakened.

Looking back at the development of wealth management subsidiaries, channel opening was not initially seen as a necessary option.

During the initial stage of net-value transformation of wealth management business, most wealth management companies relied on their parent bank's branch network, customer resources, and brand advantages to carry out product sales. In particular, wealth management subsidiaries of state-owned major banks and joint-stock banks, leveraging their huge retail customer bases, were able to maintain a high proportion of sales via parent bank channels for a relatively long period.

However, as the industry entered the stage of stock competition, the growth potential of parent bank channels gradually approached saturation;

Meanwhile, many city commercial banks and rural commercial banks, while having advantages in regional customer bases, lack independent wealth management product development and investment management capabilities, and there is ongoing demand for high-quality external products.

The matching of supply and demand at both ends has driven the rapid expansion of the wealth management agency distribution market.

In recent years, wealth management product sales channels have shown a clear trend of openness. Data from the Banking Wealth Management Registration and Custody Center indicates that the proportion of sales through parent bank channels continues to decline, while the number and scale of agency sales through non-parent banks is steadily increasing. More and more small and medium banks are simultaneously distributing products from multiple wealth management companies, and the wealth management market is gradually forming an open sales system similar to that of the public fund industry.

The inclusion of Goldman Sachs ICBC Wealth Management in Industrial Bank also reflects another layer of industry change.

As a joint venture wealth management company, Goldman Sachs ICBC made relatively cautious channel arrangements in the past;

With the last wealth management company completing coverage of non-parent bank channels, all--whether state-owned major bank subsidiaries, joint-stock bank subsidiaries, or joint venture wealth management companies--have entered the same open sales system.

Channel openness is no longer a competitive advantage, but has become the infrastructure of industry operations.

In recent years, wealth management companies competed for channel coverage, hoping to let their products reach beyond the parent bank system and access more customers. Now, with cross-bank distribution becoming a standard feature, the factors determining product sales performance have returned to the product itself.

For agency distribution banks, the range of available wealth management products is increasingly rich, often displaying similar products from multiple wealth management companies on the same shelf;

In this context, performance stability, drawdown control ability, and the investor holding experience are becoming increasingly important, while reliance on channel advantages alone as a means of scale growth is narrowing.

Meanwhile, the relationship between wealth management companies and agency distribution institutions is also changing.

In the past, agency distribution cooperation focused more on solving the problem of product supply, while in the future, both parties are more concerned about whether products can continuously gain customer acceptance and achieve stable retention;

This means that investment management capabilities, product innovation capabilities, and brand awareness will become important factors influencing market share.

All 32 wealth management companies have opened non-parent bank distribution channels, marking the completion of the channel-opening process for bank wealth management companies.

As channel dividends gradually fade, the center of industry competition will shift from who has more sales entrances to who can continuously create better investment returns.

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