As public fund fee reform progresses, fee reductions have expanded from primarily focusing on equity funds to encompass the money market fund sector. Since late September, multiple money market funds have announced fee cuts, including Tianhong Yu'ebao, currently the largest money market fund by assets under management.

Since the official launch of public fund fee reform in 2023, both the number and variety of funds implementing fee reductions have increased significantly. According to Wind data as of October 8, over 2,200 funds have annual management fees below 0.15%, and more than 4,600 funds have annual custodian fees below 0.05%, delivering substantial cost savings to investors.

**Multiple Money Market Funds Announce Fee Reductions**

Tianhong Fund recently announced that to better meet investors' financial management needs, the annual custodian fee rate for Tianhong Yu'ebao Money Market Fund would be reduced from 0.08% to 0.07%. The adjusted rate took effect in late September.

Notably, Tianhong Yu'ebao Money Market Fund is currently the largest money market fund by scale, with assets reaching 793.219 billion yuan as of the end of June. This fee reduction marks the first time the fund has cut fees since its establishment over 12 years ago. Industry professionals indicate that as a "bellwether" in the money market fund sector, Tianhong Yu'ebao's proactive fee reduction demonstrates leading products' response to fee reform and may drive more similar products to follow suit, further reducing investor costs.

In addition, several other money market funds have recently joined this round of fee reduction initiatives. In late September, Guoxin Guozheng Fund announced immediate reductions to the management and custodian fees for Guoxin Guozheng Cash Growth Money Market Fund, adjusting the annual management fee from 0.3% to 0.2% and the annual custodian fee from 0.1% to 0.07%.

Similarly, E Fund Margin Income Money Market Fund reduced its annual management fee from 0.2% to 0.15% and custodian fee from 0.08% to 0.05%, effective September 26.

Over the past month, numerous funds including Taiping Daily Gold Money Market Fund, Oriental Gold Treasure Money Market Fund, Bosera Cash Treasure Money Market Fund, Jinyu Shun'an Gold Treasure Money Market Fund, GF Daily Profit Money Market Fund, and Beijing Credit Ruifeng Yi Tou Bao Money Market Fund have all implemented fee reductions.

Beyond management and custodian fees, some money market funds have announced reductions of sales service fees to zero. In early September, Zhongtai Securities (Shanghai) Asset Management Co., Ltd. announced that starting September 9, the sales service fee rate for Zhongtai Jinquan Huijin Money Market Fund would be further reduced to 0% to better serve investors' financial management needs.

**Three-Phase Fee Reform Shows Significant Results**

Public fund fee reform has continued advancing in recent years and has now entered its third phase. The reform has gradually expanded from equity funds to bond funds, money market funds, and QDII funds, with fee reductions extending from management and custodian fees to sales fees, providing substantial benefits to investors.

In July 2023, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the "Public Fund Industry Fee Reform Work Plan," proposing a phased approach following the implementation path of "fund managers - securities companies - fund sales institutions." The first phase primarily focused on reducing management and custodian fees for actively managed equity public funds, the second phase mainly addressed fund stock trading commission rates and lowered the upper limit for fund managers' securities trading commission allocation ratios, and the third phase primarily targets sales-related fees such as subscription and purchase fees.

Subsequently, thousands of public funds proactively announced fee reductions. In 2024, multiple public fund companies announced reductions in comprehensive fee rates for their ETF products, with management fees reduced from 0.5% to 0.15% and custodian fees from 0.10% to 0.05%. The combined comprehensive fee rate after adjustment reached just 0.2%, hitting the "floor price."

Entering 2025, QDII funds also experienced a fee reduction wave, with annual management fees above 1.2% gradually reduced to 1.2%, and annual custodian fees above 0.2% generally reduced to 0.2%. Tianhong Yu'ebao's fee reduction indicates that the public fund fee reduction trend has extended to money market funds, with more money market funds expected to follow suit.

In early September, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced public consultation on the "Regulations on Sales Fee Management for Publicly Offered Securities Investment Funds (Draft for Comments)," officially entering the third phase of fee reform focusing on sales expenses.

According to the regulations, subscription and purchase fee rate caps would be reduced to 0.8%, 0.5%, and 0.3% for equity, mixed, and bond funds respectively. Sales institutions are encouraged to further increase subscription and purchase fee discounts while covering costs. The regulations also standardize sales service fees, reducing the upper limits for equity and mixed funds, index and bond funds, and money market funds to 0.4%/year, 0.2%/year, and 0.15%/year respectively. Industry calculations suggest this round of fund sales fee reform will reduce overall costs by approximately 30 billion yuan, a decrease of about 34%.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission estimates that the three phases of public fund fee reform will cumulatively save investors approximately 51 billion yuan annually, significantly reducing investment costs.

With the implementation of various fee reduction measures, the number of low-fee public fund products has increased substantially. Wind data shows that as of October 8, 2,246 products have annual management fees of 0.15% or below (calculated separately by share class), with 27 implementing "zero management fees." 4,672 products have annual custodian fees of 0.05% or below, with 71 products charging only 0.01% in annual custodian fees.