Recently, bank wealth management subsidiaries have been continuously expanding their distribution channels, accelerating partnerships with local banks.
Industry research indicates that the recent warming of distribution cooperation between wealth management subsidiaries and local small-medium banks represents a strategic choice driven by both market forces and regulatory requirements. Such partnerships have promoted the extension of the wealth management market into county-level areas and enriched the product lines of small-medium banks. In the long term, both parties need to move from simple distribution toward "deep collaboration." Wealth management subsidiaries should provide systematic support, including customer management tools, joint product design, risk control empowerment, and training resources. Small-medium banks need to focus on localized services, transitioning from product sales to wealth management and deepening customer operations and compliance capabilities. Through resource complementarity, regional cultivation, and technology empowerment, they can jointly build a sustainable win-win ecosystem.
**Distribution Channels Accelerating Extension**
Recently, small-medium banks have maintained a high "appearance rate" in the new distribution cooperation institution lists of wealth management subsidiaries.
On September 11, China Merchants Bank Wealth Management released an announcement regarding new wealth management product distribution cooperation institutions, showing that it officially signed a bank wealth management product agency sales agreement with Bank of Guangzhou on September 10. On September 3, Fujian Strait Bank also announced its wealth management product agency cooperation institutions, stating that the bank signed a wealth management product agency sales cooperation agreement with China Merchants Bank Wealth Management on August 22. Prior to this, Fujian Strait Bank had already established distribution business relationships with multiple wealth management subsidiaries including Industrial Bank Wealth Management, Nanjing Bank Wealth Management, Hangzhou Bank Wealth Management, Bank of Ningbo Wealth Management, and Jiangsu Bank Wealth Management.
From the perspective of participating entities, not only joint-stock bank wealth management subsidiaries and city commercial bank wealth management subsidiaries are frequently active in local channel deployment, but state-owned bank wealth management subsidiaries are also actively following suit. Bank of China Wealth Management and Agricultural Bank of China Wealth Management have both confirmed through announcements that they have established wealth management product distribution cooperation relationships with multiple small-medium banks. Analysis shows that since the beginning of this year, more and more wealth management subsidiaries have reached distribution cooperation agreements with local small-medium banks across the country. The scope of cooperation continues to broaden, and the wealth management service network in lower-tier markets is rapidly taking shape.
Financial education experts indicate that the core driving force behind wealth management subsidiaries' accelerated distribution cooperation with local small-medium banks lies in "channel sinking" and "resource complementarity." Wealth management subsidiaries need to break through their own network limitations, while small-medium banks urgently need to break out of the narrowing deposit-loan spread dilemma through distribution. This move allows wealth management subsidiaries to reach county-level long-tail customers while enabling small-medium banks to enhance customer stickiness through professional products. In terms of impact, this will reshape the industry ecology in the short term. The wealth management sector will achieve scale expansion and customer segmentation, while banks will optimize their revenue structure. In the long term, this will help promote the transformation of small-medium banks from "channel-type" to "value-type," forcing them to strengthen wealth management capability building.
**Small-Medium Banks Transform to "Wealth Management"**
Small-medium banks are accelerating their transformation pace in the wealth management distribution field. With the conclusion of listed banks' 2025 interim report disclosures, their active deployment and achievements in this business segment have gradually become clear. Data shows that multiple small-medium banks have not only achieved significant growth in wealth management distribution scale through deepening cooperation with wealth management subsidiaries, but the depth and breadth of business cooperation have also continuously expanded. Under the dual drive of asset management new regulations and market environment changes, small-medium banks are accelerating their transition from "traditional deposit and lending" to the "wealth management" track.
From this year's interim report data, some small-medium banks' wealth management distribution business performance has been particularly outstanding. Taking Changshu Bank as an example, as of the end of June 2025, the bank's wealth management distribution scale jumped to 7.277 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 50% compared to the end of last year. The expansion of distribution business also directly drove the growth of intermediary business income. Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank's interim report also shows that in the first half of this year, its fund wealth management fee income was 187 million yuan, an increase of 5 million yuan year-on-year. The core reason was that the bank actively established distribution cooperation with high-quality wealth management subsidiaries, further broadening service channels, expanding customer coverage, and promoting steady business growth.
Industry insiders believe that against the backdrop of narrowing net interest margins, cooperating with licensed wealth management subsidiaries to carry out distribution business has become a realistic choice for small-medium banks to maintain customers and obtain intermediary business income.
However, small-medium banks' distribution transformation path also faces new challenges. The "Commercial Bank Agency Sales Business Management Measures" (hereinafter referred to as the "new distribution regulations") will be officially implemented on October 1. The new regulations put forward stricter requirements for the sales process, customer suitability management, and cooperative institution management of distribution business. Small-medium banks are directly facing the "triple pressure" of compliance, capability, and competition.
In this regard, banking research experts indicate that the new distribution regulations have further tightened requirements in areas such as distribution product access, the entire sales process, duration management, customer suitability matching, and risk isolation, which will directly increase pressure on small-medium banks in compliance management, customer management, and risk control. At the same time, some small-medium banks still have shortcomings in information system construction and professional sales team allocation, making it difficult to fully meet the new regulations' requirements for "full-process standardization" management of distribution business.
Industry experts further state that after the implementation of the new distribution regulations, small-medium banks need to face three challenges: first, the cost of compliance review for distribution products will increase sharply; second, the difficulty of customer risk assessment and suitability matching will increase; third, technical systems need to interface with wealth management subsidiary data interfaces. The solution lies in "three focuses": focusing on upgrading risk control systems and establishing penetrating product access mechanisms; focusing on strengthening digital capabilities and achieving real-time information interaction through API interfaces; focusing on talent team building and cultivating composite teams with both compliance awareness and wealth management capabilities. Only by shifting distribution cooperation from "scale-oriented" to "quality-oriented" can sustainable progress be achieved.
From the perspective of long-term industry development, experts suggest that wealth management subsidiaries and local banks need to reconstruct long-term cooperation logic and promote the transformation of cooperation models from "one-way support" to "two-way empowerment." Not only should traditional channel cooperation be upgraded to deep ecological co-construction, but "1+1>2" synergistic effects should also be achieved through resource complementarity. In specific collaboration, wealth management subsidiaries should output standardized products while assisting small-medium banks in customizing regional asset allocation solutions. Small-medium banks need to leverage local information advantages to explore customized needs of corporate customers and high-net-worth client groups. For future cooperation paths, both parties can explore a model of "joint product research + data co-construction + scenario co-expansion," such as jointly developing rural revitalization-themed wealth management products or embedding wealth management services in supply chain finance scenarios.