Slippery products for banks’ clients
The explosive growth in the wealth management product market has the mainland's banking regulator grappling to rein in practices that threaten investors and raise concerns about transparency in the banking system.Investors often believed there is an implicit commitment from banks to repay investors upon the products' maturity, said Charlene Chu, senior director of financial institutions for Fitch Ratings. However, such repayment obligations are not often included anywhere in the banks' financial statements, and thus represent a hidden call on banks' liquidity.