SCMP, Fitch on Yu'e Bao Shrinkage
The South China Morning Post writes, "Ant Financial's Yu'e Bao shrinks 39 per cent, loses top spot as world's biggest money market fund, says Fitch Ratings." The article tells us, "Yu'e Bao, the money market fund distributed on Ant Financial's payment network, Alipay, has lost its top ranking as the world's biggest such fund, according to Fitch Ratings. The fund has shrunk by 39 per cent from its peak in March last year as negative real yields and keener competition from banks' wealth management products triggered an outflow of money. As of June, Yu'e Bao's assets under management stood at 1.03 trillion yuan (US$150 billion), down from 1.69 trillion (US$267 billion) in March 2018, according to Fitch." It adds, "Yu'e Bao is managed by Tianhong Asset Management, which is 51 per cent controlled by Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba Group. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.... By Fitch's estimates, at the end of August, the assets under management of the other two mega MMFs, JPMorgan US Government MMF, and Fidelity Government Cash Reserves Fund, were US$147 billion and US$150 billion respectively." For more, see our Sept. 26 News, "Worldwide MF Assets Hit Record $6.1T: US Jumps, China Crashes in Q2," our Sept. 9 Link of the Day, "Bloomberg: China's Yu'E Bao Shrinks," and our April 11 News, "China's Yu'e Bao No Longer World's Largest MMF; Repo Cap? Fed Minutes.
