The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) completed the sale of its fund product under the qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) program on Friday, raising a total of 4.45 billion yuan.

 

Launched on May 29, it is the first QDII product that will invest in overseas stock markets following government approval on May 14 to allow banks to expand from fixed-income and money markets into equity markets.

 

The fund will invest half of its assets in mainland-related stocks in Hong Kong and the other half in high-yield bonds and money-market products across Asia, the bank said.

 

Individual investors must put in at least 300,000 yuan to participate in the fund.

 

It is the largest fund ever raised under the QDII program.

 

Following inception of the QDII program in July last year, market enthusiasm for the program cooled due to the booming domestic stock market and expectations of appreciation of the yuan.

 

China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) statistics show the government had approved 22 banks - 12 domestic and 10 from overseas - with a total quota of US$14.8 billion by the end of May.

 

Yet only US$800 to US$900 million had been invested by that time.

 

Expansion in the range of investments is expected to boost QDII product yields and make the program more appealing.

 

Yin Long, deputy director of the CBRC's supervisory cooperation department, said earlier he expects several billion dollars will be invested abroad under the QDII program this year.

 

Following the ICBC, other banks, including Bank of Communications, HSBC and Bank of East Asia, also began to offer new QDII products that invest in overseas equity markets.

 

(China Daily July 3, 2007)