China central bank publishes rules regulating major money market funds

CHINA’S central bank published rules regulating major money market funds late on Friday (Feb 17), aiming to better supervise and monitor risks while promoting the smooth and healthy development of fund products.

Money market funds with net assets of more than 200 billion yuan (S$38.9 billion) or counting more than 50 million investors in 20 consecutive trading days should fall in the scope of the assessment, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in an online statement.

The PBOC urged fund managers to comprehensively and prudently assess the impact of such major money market funds on investors, the broad capital markets and the financial system.

Such funds “must not expand their sizes blindly,” the central bank said in the statement, jointly issued with the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Major money market funds with a net asset value of more than 500 billion yuan for 20 straight trading days should make adjustments to fulfil certain requirements, the PBOC added.

It said that the rules will come into effect on May 16.

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Tianhong Yu’e Bao, controlled by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, is China’s biggest money market fund with 689.3 billion in net assets as of Friday. REUTERS