'Secret' China rules – JPMorgan ETFs – Trading scrutiny
Welcome back to the News Brief, a weekly summary of some of the most important stories on Ignites Asia.
New guidelines issued by Chinese regulators governing the cross-border sharing of financial data has generated confusion from funds industry participants around what kind of information sharing would be permitted going forward.
The rules, which have not been made public, still leave many "loose ends" for global asset managers who say the ability to transfer portfolio data, research reports and risk management between their onshore and offshore entities is a "key priority". Read more from Madeleine Taylor.
JPMorgan Asset Management launched eight new active ETFs in Singapore this month after rolling out their first three earlier this year, citing "robust" local investor interest and flows.
The US fund firm is one of just two asset managers in the city-state with an active ETF, however, and other industry participants have refrained from entering the space due to the commissions-based distribution model prevalent in the region. Read more from Amy Sood.
Growing Chinese scrutiny targeting abnormal trading behaviour could impact offshore asset managers with trading accounts on the Hong Kong-Mainland Stock Connect channel.
Fund firms that have chosen to aggregate trading activity across multiple funds under one account could potentially trigger red flags with regulators, legal experts warned. Read more from Roxanne Liu.
Chart of the week
Investors in Hong Kong and Singapore piled into fixed income strategies in the first half of this year amid persistent market volatility, with global short-term bonds dominating in Hong Kong and flexible bond funds leading the way in the south-east Asian city-state, according to Broadridge data. Read more from Choe Leung.
