Small and medium-sized banks vie for wealth management licenses: Joint applications become a breakthrough path.

The self-regulatory department requires small and medium-sized banks to reduce their proprietary wealth management scale, which has been in effect for over a year now. For some banks that must achieve zero proprietary wealth management scale by the end of 2026, the task is urgent. Due to differences in qualifications and uneven pressure to reduce wealth management scale, compared to a year ago, many banks that were actively preparing to establish wealth management subsidiaries now have significantly reduced motivation. However, there are still banks pushing hard, for example, several banks in Sichuan are actively promoting joint applications to establish wealth management subsidiaries. Industry insiders believe that although jointly applying for a wealth management subsidiary license can integrate resources and share costs, it also faces challenges such as differing investment philosophies and risk control standards.