PSBC Official Announcement! New AIC Approved for Business Operation, State-Owned Major Banks "Complete the Set" of Licenses!

The sixth state-owned major bank financial asset investment company (AIC) has been approved to commence operations!

On March 20, Postal Savings Bank of China announced that it recently received approval from the State Financial Regulatory Administration. The bank’s newly established China Post Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd. (referred to as “China Post Investment”) has been authorized to start operations. China Post Investment has a registered capital of 10 billion RMB and is registered in Beijing. After eight years, the sixth financial asset investment company affiliated with a major state-owned bank has finally been established, completing the full set of AIC licenses for all major state-owned banks.

According to securities industry sources, the legal representative of China Post Investment is Du Chunye, who is currently Vice President and Secretary of the Board of Postal Savings Bank of China. He oversees the bank’s corporate finance business and leads the development of the “1+N” corporate finance operating system. Du Chunye previously stated at the earnings briefing that the purpose of establishing the AIC subsidiary is to integrate China Post Investment into the bank’s overall development through a comprehensive service matrix, making it a key part of the new corporate finance “1+N” system.

Partnerships on the Day of Establishment

In its March 20 announcement, Postal Savings Bank of China stated that China Post Investment will support technological innovation and private enterprises by conducting market-oriented debt-to-equity swaps and equity investment pilot projects, helping to develop new productive forces.

Securities industry sources learned that on the same day, Postal Savings Bank held the “China Post Investment Service for Technological Innovation Launch Conference,” attended by Liu Aili, Chairman of China Post Group, and Zheng Guoyu, General Manager of China Post Group. The event was hosted by the bank’s new President, Lu Wei.

At the launch event, China Post Investment announced signing framework agreements with 14 entities in fields such as integrated circuits, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and industrial investment.

The bank explained that China Post Investment will build an integrated financial service ecosystem of “equity, loans, bonds, and investments,” focusing on market-oriented debt-to-equity swaps. Its mission is to “invest early, invest small, invest long-term, and invest in hard technology,” fostering technological enterprises at different stages and supporting the high-quality development of traditional, emerging, and future industries.

Last August, Du Chunye explained the overall strategic plan for the new AIC subsidiary at the bank’s earnings briefing. The goal is to create four major platforms: an innovative platform for loan and investment linkage, a long-term capital platform for technological innovation, a structural reform debt-to-equity platform, and an equity investment management platform.

In fact, in March 2025, the Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice on further expanding the pilot program for financial asset investment companies’ equity investments, supporting qualified commercial banks to initiate the establishment of financial AICs based on the existing five state-owned bank AICs.

Subsequently, the expansion of AIC licenses accelerated significantly, with the first new licenses awarded to Industrial Bank, China Merchants Bank, and CITIC Bank. In November last year, Industrial Bank’s Xingyin Investment opened in Fuzhou; China Merchants Bank’s Zhaoyin Investment launched in Shenzhen; and in December, CITIC Bank’s Xinyin Jin Investment opened in Guangzhou, completing its first investment.

Acceleration of AIC Equity Investment Pilot Expansion

With the official opening of China Post Investment, the number of bank-affiliated AICs increased to nine, including six state-owned bank AICs and three joint-stock bank AICs, marking a substantive industry advancement. As “patient capital” bridging indirect and direct financing, AICs are becoming key tools to solve financing difficulties for tech companies and cultivate new productive forces.

Currently, AICs’ equity investment pilot scope covers 18 regions nationwide, mainly focusing on strategic emerging industries such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, new energy, and biomedicine, forming a relatively complete tech-finance service network.

Industry analysts note that AICs’ core advantage lies in their synergy of investment and lending, providing comprehensive financial services across the entire lifecycle of tech startups, balancing support for innovation with risk control. Although AICs’ equity investment activities are still in early stages, they possess strong capital backing and patient capital characteristics.

With favorable policies, AIC equity investment projects are experiencing rapid growth. According to Tianyancha business registration data, by August 2025, eight AICs had registered a total of 131 funds, far exceeding the 59 funds registered in all of 2024. Notably, since 2026, several AICs have registered an additional 29 new project funds.

Specifically, ICBC’s ICBC Investment added 43 new funds in 2025, ranking first; Bank of Communications’ CIC Investment and Bank of China’s Asset Management each established 23 funds; China Construction Bank’s CCB Investment and Agricultural Bank’s Agri Investment set up 21 and 18 funds respectively. These new funds are mainly concentrated in 18 pilot cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Chongqing.

For example, the three newly established joint-stock bank AICs have quickly launched their equity investment projects after opening last year.

Xingyin Investment, for instance, has focused its investments on semiconductors, photovoltaics, lithium mining, and engineering plastics—new energy and new materials sectors—accumulating over 6 billion RMB by the end of 2025. Zhaoyin Investment has targeted the new energy vehicle sector, investing 500 million RMB in the deep blue automotive capital increase and holding a 2.4187% stake. Xinyin Investment recently invested 85.5755 million RMB in Henan Bailian New Materials Co., Ltd., and completed investments in Shenzhen Port Hua Dingxin Clean Energy Co., Ltd.

Potential to Expand Bank Business Opportunities

Beyond supporting China’s technological innovation and new productive forces, the expansion of bank-affiliated AICs is also expected to open new business opportunities for banks themselves.

Yuan Zheqi, an analyst at Ping An Securities, previously stated that the AIC industry is expected to develop rapidly in the future. In terms of operations, controlling shareholders can use AIC funds to invest in non-listed companies, greatly enhancing the value of AIC’s financial licenses. This also helps alleviate the current mismatch between bank investments in tech companies’ risks and returns, and supports tech enterprises through “investment and lending linkage” and other methods.

Huatai Securities’ research suggests that, from a bank’s perspective, under the backdrop of declining interest rates, traditional deposit and loan profit margins are shrinking, necessitating new profit growth points and a move toward comprehensive transformation. Opening equity investment permissions allows banks to break through traditional credit boundaries and enter high-end manufacturing, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and other promising fields. Banks can also leverage their corporate banking resources to identify high-quality tech projects and provide integrated services.

However, industry insiders also point out that despite the strong growth momentum of AICs in recent years, there are still structural bottlenecks in their institutional environment and operational mechanisms. For example, some management systems are not fully aligned with the intrinsic laws of equity investment; the inherent tension between the debt-like attributes of capital and the long-term, high-risk nature of equity investments; and the difficulty in designing flexible and efficient business processes suitable for both. These issues require coordinated policy, regulatory, and internal governance innovations to optimize and breakthrough.

Layout: Liu Junyu

Proofreading: Wang Wei