In the view of many public fund managers, the launch of actively managed ETFs coincides with a period of rapid growth in the ETF industry, signifying that the domestic ETF market is entering a new era of synergistic development transitioning from "passive tracking" to "active + passive" strategies. A significant new development has arrived for public fund ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)! On July 17th, the first batch of public fund actively managed ETFs was officially submitted for approval. According to information from the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), 18 public fund companies recently submitted product registration materials to the regulatory authority, all currently in the "materials accepted" stage. Among them, 9 public funds from each of the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges have submitted applications for actively managed ETFs. Judging by the product names, the first batch of submitted products primarily focus on stable investment strategies, covering diverse investment styles such as large-cap, value, balanced, dividend, and growth. Industry insiders indicate that the arrival of actively managed ETFs signifies that the domestic ETF market will enter a new era of synergistic "active + passive" development. In recent years, the continuous expansion of the domestic ETF scale fully confirms the strong market demand for index-based investing.
18 Public Funds Compete on the Same Stage
In June of this year, CSRC Chairman Wu Qing proposed at the 2026 Lujiazui Forum to support the launch of active ETFs on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. Just one month later, multiple public fund companies swiftly submitted related products. According to the CSRC website, the 18 fund companies applying for the first batch of actively managed ETFs are: China Asset Management, E Fund Management, Guotai Asset Management, Huatai-PineBridge Fund Management, China Southern Asset Management, HuaBao Fund, Fullgoal Fund, HuaAn Fund, China Universal Asset Management, Tianhong Asset Management, Penghua Fund Management, China Merchants Fund Management, ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management, Ping An Fund, Dacheng Fund, Yongying Fund, JPMorgan Asset Management, and CCB Principal Asset Management. Among them, 9 institutions from each of the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchange tracks have submitted applications for their actively managed ETF products.
It is noted that the public funds in the first batch of applicants include both top-tier and medium-sized ETF managers, representing a diverse range of industry participants and a rich competitive landscape. Wind data shows that as of July 17th, the top five public funds by ETF management scale are China Asset Management, E Fund Management, Guotai Asset Management, Huatai-PineBridge Fund Management, and China Southern Asset Management. Adding HuaBao Fund and Fullgoal Fund, the ETF assets under management for the aforementioned institutions all exceed 200 billion yuan. The ETF management scale of HuaAn Fund and China Universal Asset Management also surpasses 100 billion yuan. All public funds participating in this application have ETF management scales starting from tens of billions of yuan.
From the names of the submitted products, it can be seen that the first batch of actively managed ETFs deploy multiple mainstream investment strategies. For example, products like China Asset Management's Quality Value Selection Active ETF, Huatai-PineBridge Fund Management's Value Selection Active ETF, China Merchants Fund Management's Value Intelligent Selection Active ETF, and Fullgoal Fund's Value Preferred Active ETF contain the word "value" in their names, while China Southern Asset Management's Large-Cap Style Allocation Active ETF includes "large-cap" in its name. Value and large-cap strategies typically heavily weight traditional high-quality leading companies with low valuations and strong profit stability.
Some active ETF names contain the word "balanced." For instance, China Universal Asset Management's Balanced Strategy Active ETF, Guotai Asset Management's Xin Hui Balanced Return Active ETF, and Tianhong Asset Management's Balanced Preferred Active ETF. These products aim for more diversified holdings with the goal of stable returns. There is also HuaBao Fund's Preferred Stable Equity Active ETF, whose name highlights a "stable" positioning.
Other active ETF names include the words "growth" or "prosperity." Examples are JPMorgan Asset Management's Core Growth Active ETF and Yongying Fund's Prosperity Selection Active ETF. These strategies focus on investing in high-growth industries such as technology.
Additionally, some active ETF names contain the word "dividend." For example, Dacheng Fund's Dividend Intelligent Selection Active ETF and ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management's Dividend Active ETF. Dividend assets primarily consist of high-dividend-yield stocks like banks and coal, where corporate cash flow is generally stable and ample.
Enhancing the Variety of In-Market ETF Products
With the continuous popularization of index-based investment concepts, the variety of domestic ETFs has been expanding, and management scale has been growing steadily. However, all previous products have been passive index funds. With the submission of 18 actively managed ETFs, this landscape is set for a historic breakthrough.
As viewed by many public funds, the launch of actively managed ETFs coincides with a high-growth window for the ETF industry, indicating that the domestic ETF market is transitioning from "passive tracking" to a new era of synergistic "active + passive" development. Unlike traditional passive ETFs, the characteristic of active ETFs is that fund managers can autonomously choose investment strategies and are not bound by the investment objective of tracking a specific index.
Wang Baohe, General Manager of the Quantitative Investment Department at Fullgoal Fund, believes that the launch of actively managed ETFs holds multiple profound implications for the domestic capital market. First, it can fully leverage the price discovery function of active management, reducing price volatility risks caused by overly concentrated trading and ETF creation/redemption, thereby enhancing the endogenous stability of the capital market. Second, as actively managed ETFs disclose holdings daily and their investment behavior is constrained by performance benchmarks, it helps improve investment discipline, avoid "style drift," and ensure capital is truly directed towards high-quality assets. Third, with investment research capability and strategy innovation as core competitive advantages, actively managed ETFs can break the homogeneous competition pattern and drive the industry's shift from "scale expansion" to "capability deepening." Fourth, actively managed ETFs combine transparency and tool-like characteristics, with clear holdings and stable styles, precisely meeting the allocation needs of long-term capital such as insurance funds and pension funds.
Huatai-PineBridge Fund Management explained from a product perspective that active ETFs are fundamentally different from the already maturely developed Enhanced ETFs in China. The main assets of Enhanced ETFs must be invested in the constituent stocks of the target index, with clear requirements for tracking deviation and annualized tracking error. In contrast, active ETFs have greater autonomy in sector allocation and individual stock selection. However, the two are highly similar in core operational areas such as daily management, risk control, system operation, and investment research operations. The practical experience accumulated by the public fund industry over the years in the field of Enhanced ETFs is expected to provide important support for the rapid implementation and popularization of active ETFs.
From the perspective of product characteristics, Guotai Asset Management believes that active ETFs are innovative vehicles combining active management capabilities with the tool-like attributes of ETFs. Unlike traditional passive ETFs that primarily track an index, active ETFs do not aim to replicate an index. Instead, they rely on the fund manager's investment research capabilities and active investment strategies to conduct active stock selection and dynamic adjustments within agreed parameters, striving to achieve better returns. Simultaneously, active ETFs feature the convenience of in-market trading, transparent operations, and relatively high trading efficiency. They are expected to provide investors with a richer array of in-market allocation tools, further expanding the spectrum of equity investment instruments.
From a product system standpoint, HuaBao Fund believes that active ETFs will further enrich the variety of in-market funds. Fund managers will have greater space for sector allocation, stock selection, and portfolio adjustments, and the strategic hierarchy and differentiation of in-market equity products will also be further enhanced. For the capital market, the research pricing and value discovery capabilities of professional institutions can be further leveraged through in-market products, guiding capital to allocate more effectively to quality assets.
From an investor's perspective, since active ETFs require fund managers to continuously conduct research and make active portfolio adjustments, their management costs are higher than those of passive ETFs. At the same time, leveraging the in-market trading mechanism eliminates the distribution and service fees associated with traditional out-of-market active funds, resulting in a lower comprehensive holding cost for investors compared to out-of-market active equity funds. "The overall fee structure for active ETFs may be lower compared to out-of-market actively managed products, effectively reducing investors' holding costs," said Li Zhan, Chief Economist of the Research Department at China Merchants Fund Management.
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