Rules spark fears and raise hopes
After more than 10 years of wild expansion, will China's credit, which has accumulated to 178.73 trillion yuan ($25.3 trillion) by February in terms of total social financing, be tamed by a newly formed regulatory framework for the asset management segment?
About 8 million financial practitioners in the Chinese asset management segment may start thinking about their future jobs, or take the earliest opportunity to change careers, before what they see as the regulatory hurricane's landfall. The sweeping new guidelines forbid many profitable but high-risk businesses.
A friend of mine, who is working with a large securities company and leads its asset management team, said that those working in the sector worry they might lose jobs when the new rules take effect. "The most profitable but risky businesses will be stopped when the regulators set leverage ceilings on asset management products," he told me.
