Foreign and domestic IT vendors are battling to win mandates to service China’s lucrative wealth management market, according to a new report from consultant Celent.

In many financial sectors in China, like internet, credit card and corporate banking, local players monopolise the technology vendor market. But wealth management, as a younger sector, is one area where there is fierce competition between foreign and local players, said the report, titled: Chinese Banking Technonolgy Vendor Landscape: The Domestic Players.

“While some markets, like the credit card market, are fully dominated by foreign-funded vendors, and we see stiff competition between Chinese-funded and foreign funded vendors in providing some of the emerging IT systems of Chinese banks including for cash management, wealth management, and risk management,” said the report.

In China, wealth management systems were launched relatively late. Only large state-owned banks and a few local players which pitch their services to high-end customers like China Merchants Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have ventured into this field, said Celent analysts.

“Currently, many joint-stock banks are actively building their wealth management systems,” said Celent. The report pointed to Hundsun Technologies which above all other providers has an edge in terms of technology and experience because it previously served the securities industry. Besides Hundsun, Longtop is another major vendor in this field, said Celent.

Longtop’s private banking management system has function modules like customer management, product management, wealth management, customer relations, trade services, customer service, marketing events, value-added services, systems management. 

Meanwhile Hundsun is extremely proficient in back end systems and has the major market share. Due to its advantage in the securities industry, Hundsun is actively expanding into the wealth management sector of the banking industry, said the report.