Winners rationale

China, at US$10 trillion, stands as the third largest bond market in the world after the US and Japan. Although, compared to other emerging markets, China’s onshore bond market remains under-invested in by international players, in 2017, the country made significant progress towards liberalising its bond markets.

In March last year, Bloomberg Barclays launched two new hybrid fixed income indices that included RMB denominated China bonds under the Bloomberg Barclays Benchmark Fixed Income Index group. In July, China rolled out the Bond Connect programme, a new mutual market access scheme that allows investors from Mainland China, and from overseas, to trade in each other’s respective bond markets. International credit rating agencies were also granted access to rate Chinese onshore issuers, gearing the country’s credit rating quality to international standards.

Following shrinking RMB related risks as the currency grows more stable, Asian private banking investors’ appetite has gradually re-emerged.

The first Singapore-based asset manager to be granted RQFII status and approved for China Interbank Bond Market access, Fullerton Fund Management managed its first China strategy (QFII) more than 11 years ago. Impressively, it was also one of the first Asian fund houses to receive a Private Fund Management license in China.

With AUM from this segment growing by double digits over the past three years, and a dedicated team covering the global wholesale channel, the manager’s private banking business has significantly developed in recent years.

With two full-time staff members based in Singapore, both of whom have a combined 21 years of industry experience, these individuals have built significant relationships with gatekeepers across the key local and global private banks. It is also worth mentioning that the firm uses a “multi-touchpoint approach”, where it engages stakeholders along the value chain – from individual bankers to management teams in private banks – in order to deepen its understanding of client needs from different perspectives and facilitate strategic and partnership-like conversations.

Fund selectors have picked Fullerton Fund Management as this year’s Best Fund Provider – RMB Bond.