UBS is Applying For a Fund License in China

As China gradually opens its financial markets to Western institutions, UBS wants to expand its stake in a joint venture there.

Swiss bank UBS is in informal talks with China’s securities regulator. The firm wants to apply for a license to sell mutual funds as soon as possible. UBS became the first foreign bank in China to seek a majority stake in its local investment banking unit after regulators lifted limits in 2018, relaxing the rules further in 2019.

That opened the door for other institutions to follow suit, including  Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase, which have since obtained various licenses from Chinese regulators to expand their businesses in the Middle Kingdom.

UBS has a 49 percent stake in a joint venture with state-owned SDIC Taikang Trust and has been in talks with its Chinese partner to take control of the company. However, the two parties failed to reach an agreement according to people familiar with the matter.

In the past, UBS has held talks with insurer China Life Insurance and the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, about setting up joint ventures in wealth management. The negotiations failed to reach an agreement and ICBC eventually set up an asset management joint venture with Goldman Sachs.