Asset Management
BNP Paribas Reportedly Eyes Chinese Wealth JV

BNP Paribas was tight-lipped yesterday on reports that it is considering forming a wealth venture with one of China's largest banks.
BNP Paribas
declined to comment yesterday on a newswire report that its asset
management arm is in talks to form a wealth management venture
with a unit of Agricultural Bank of China.
The report by Reuters yesterday, quoting unnamed
sources, said that Paris-listed BNP Paribas is going after a
larger chunk of China's $19 trillion asset management sector. The
Asian giant has liberalised some of its financial markets,
allowing foreign asset managers to form majority-owned wealth
management ventures with local banks.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the talks told
Reuters that the investment management arm of BNP
Paribas will hold a majority stake in the planned venture with
AgBank's wealth management subsidiary.
The French firm declined to comment to
WealthBriefingAsia about the matter yesterday.
As the newswire report noted, rival firms such as Amundi – based
in France – and BlackRock have formed Chinese wealth management
ventures, while Schroders and Goldman Sachs are moving in the
same direction. JP Morgan Asset Management has partnered with
China Merchants Bank's wealth management unit.
Ironically, the push by Western firms into China’s asset
management industry coincides with a cooling of relationships
between the US, Europe, and China over the latter’s national
security law crackdown on Hong Kong in 2020, its treatment of
ethnic Muslims in Western China, alleged theft of Western
companies’ intellectual property, and clashes with India.