Debenture Fund announced a significant management change on February 14, revealing that Chairwoman Zuo Chang has stepped down due to "work adjustments." Wu Xiaochun, General Manager from the controlling shareholder Debenture Securities, will assume the role of Acting Chairman. Zuo Chang had led Debenture Fund for nearly eight years, and her departure concludes her 17-year tenure within the Debenture system.
During Zuo Chang's leadership, the fund's management scale saw continuous growth. However, the timing of this personnel change is particularly notable. Just half a month prior, Debenture Fund faced regulatory action for improper marketing collaboration with internet influencers, resulting in corrective orders and a suspension of new public fund product registrations. Several responsible individuals, including the General Manager and the Chief Compliance Officer, were also held accountable.
The successor, Wu Xiaochun, is a 15-year veteran of Debenture Securities with extensive experience acting as Chief Risk Officer and Compliance Director. Following the penalty for improper influencer marketing cooperation, the appointment of Wu, with his risk control background, as Acting Chairman may signify more than a routine personnel replacement.
Zuo Chang, born in September 1973, began her career as a secondary school teacher. After earning a master's degree in Probability and Mathematical Statistics from Fudan University, she entered the financial sector in 2001. Her early career included five years in the entrusted asset management department of Huatai Securities Co., Ltd., focusing on research and investment, followed by a role in the derivatives and fixed income department at Donghai Securities. These eight years of experience laid a solid foundation for her subsequent rise in asset management.
In 2009, Zuo Chang joined Debenture Securities, beginning a 17-year tenure during which she advanced to core management positions. She held various roles including Deputy General Manager of the Wealth Management Center, Deputy General Manager (acting in charge) of the Institutional Client Department, General Manager of the Asset Management Headquarters, Company Director and General Manager of Asset Management Headquarters, Assistant to the President and General Manager of Asset Management Headquarters, Vice President, and President.
In April 2018, Zuo Chang was appointed Chairwoman of Debenture Fund, a position she held for nearly eight years. During this period, she also served as Chairwoman of Debenture Securities Asset Management Co., Ltd., an asset management subsidiary of Debenture Securities.
Under her leadership, Debenture Fund's management scale grew significantly. Starting from 13.1 billion yuan when she took office, the scale dropped to around 8 billion yuan by the end of 2018 due to new asset management regulations. However, it began a sustained increase from the second half of 2019, reaching nearly 70 billion yuan by the end of 2025.
Prior to her departure from Debenture Fund, Zuo Chang's roles had undergone a series of significant changes. Following Debenture Securities' change in controlling shareholder and actual controller nine months prior, and its entry into state-owned sequence, the mid-2025 period saw a board reshuffle and executive adjustments at Debenture Securities. Zuo Chang first stepped down from the board and then resigned as President. In January of this year, she also resigned as Chairwoman of Debenture Securities Asset Management. With these steps, she has now completely exited the Debenture system.
Following Zuo Chang's departure, Wu Xiaochun, General Manager of Debenture Securities, will serve as Acting Chairman of Debenture Fund. It is important to note that this is currently an interim appointment. Debenture Fund has not indicated whether Wu Xiaochun will formally assume the role after regulatory approval or if there will be subsequent arrangements for electing a new chairman.
Wu Xiaochun joined Debenture Securities in March 2011, making him a 15-year veteran of the company. Previously, he held positions as Senior Manager in the Securities Investment Department, Deputy General Manager of the Research Institute Market Department, and General Manager of the Asset Management Department at Huatai Securities.
His tenure at Debenture Securities has been complex. Before July 2018, he served as Vice President, Acting President, and President. Subsequently, he held the position of Chief Executive Officer for seven years, concurrently serving as Legal Representative, Director, Vice Chairman, and also acting as Chief Risk Officer, Compliance Director, and Chairman. Since June 2025, he has served as General Manager and Chief Financial Officer.
Generally, the positions of General Manager, President, and Chief Executive Officer are considered equivalent, with different titles used by different companies. The title Chief Executive Officer is more common in internet companies, while financial institutions typically use General Manager or President. All three titles have appeared at Debenture Securities. In practice, Chief Executive Officer equated to General Manager, representing an adjustment in title, with the Chief Executive Officer/General Manager ranking above the President. When Wu Xiaochun served as Chief Executive Officer, Zuo Chang was the President, and Wu ranked above her.
Thus, since July 2018, Wu Xiaochun has been the top operational decision-maker at Debenture Securities. In June 2025, besides his title change from Chief Executive Officer to General Manager, he also took over the Chief Financial Officer role previously held by Zuo Chang.
The recent regulatory penalty against Debenture Fund for improper marketing cooperation places the company in a rectification period. The appointment of Wu Xiaochun as Acting Chairman is notable given his background, which includes long-term and repeated concurrent appointments to key risk control roles such as Chief Risk Officer and Compliance Director at Debenture Securities.
Regarding this personnel adjustment, Debenture Fund publicly stated to media that the change is a routine measure within the normal context of executive turnover in the public fund industry and will not affect the company's normal operations or long-term development.
The timing of this chairman change is sensitive, inevitably drawing connections to the recent regulatory penalty against Debenture Fund.
On January 29, according to the first institutional regulatory circular of 2026 issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), "D Fund Company" engaged in marketing cooperation with an internet influencer lacking relevant qualifications, paying a large advertising fee. The collaboration used the influencer's announcement on a platform of a planned large purchase of the company's "A Product" on a specific day as a gimmick, leveraging the influencer's traffic and influence to urge investors to follow suit and buy the product, thereby inducing investors with mismatched risk tolerance to purchase medium-to-high-risk products.
These actions violated Article 21 of the "Supervisory and Administrative Measures for Public Offering Securities Investment Fund Managers," as the company failed to fully disclose risks to investors and had inadequate investor suitability management.
Although the circular did not name the fund company, the "21st Century Business Herald" identified it as Debenture Fund, with the involved product being its Debenture Stable Growth Flexible Allocation Mixed Fund.
The content of the regulatory circular closely resembles the model previously associated with the promotion of Debenture Fund's Debenture Stable Growth Flexible Allocation Mixed fund by an online influencer.
Rumors suggested that a prominent influencer promoted Debenture Fund by showcasing actual portfolio operations and received kickbacks from the company. However, "Lanjing News" reported, citing sources close to the influencer, that no fees were received from the fund company, labeling the online information as pure rumor and indicating that legal measures would be taken against false reports.
The influencer has since deleted the controversial promotional posts. This action was quickly contradicted by the regulatory circular, which explicitly stated that "D Fund Company paid a large advertising fee to the internet influencer."
In the financial sector, fund promotion qualifications typically refer to the license to sell funds, i.e., the legal authority to raise funds from the public and sell public fund products. Institutions holding such qualifications mainly include banks, securities companies, and independent fund distribution institutions. Public promotion and recommendation of fund products by internet influencers essentially constitutes a form of fund sales activity, clearly violating fund sales regulations.
This incident exposed weaknesses in Debenture Fund's internal control mechanisms. Consequently, the CSRC imposed corrective measures on Debenture Fund, including a suspension of acceptance of new public fund product registrations, while also holding accountable responsible personnel such as the General Manager, Chief Compliance Officer, and the head of the internet business department.
According to Debenture Fund's disclosed executive team, the current General Manager and Chief Financial Officer is Zhang Yi, and the Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Risk Control is Xu Xiaohong.
The suspension of new public fund product registrations is a significant impact for a fund company. In 2025, Debenture Fund launched four new funds, comprising three equity-blended hybrid funds and one enhanced index fund.
Debenture Stable Growth is a flexible allocation fund. Its Class A and Class C shares were established in March 2017 and May 2023, respectively, jointly managed by fund managers Lei Tao and Lu Yang. By the end of 2025, the fund's total scale reached a historic high of 1.027 billion yuan, up from 721 million yuan at the end of the third quarter, after having lingered below 300 million yuan for the previous five years. The Class C shares accounted for 965 million yuan, nearly 94% of the total.
The longer-established Class A shares have a complete performance record across market cycles. Its performance from 2021 to 2025 was generally mediocre, ranking in the middle to lower tiers among peers for four years, with only 2022 showing good performance.
However, the fund's net asset value surged dramatically in the first half of January. The cumulative NAV peaked at 1.2982 on January 14, representing a 36% increase within half a month. Single-day gains on January 9 and 12 reached 9.24% and 8.32% respectively, temporarily pushing its performance ranking to second place in its category.
The sharp rise in Debenture Stable Growth's NAV was largely driven by its exposure to the hot AI application sector. The fund's top ten holdings at the end of 2025, accounting for 68.29% of the portfolio, included stocks like Intsig Information Co.,Ltd., Jiangsu Eazytec Co.,Ltd., Wondershare Technology Group Co.,Ltd., Easy Click Worldwide Network Technology Co.,Ltd., and Hangzhou Raycloud Technology Co.,Ltd. These cover various AI sub-sectors such as AI-powered creative software, enterprise-level AI services, AI for e-commerce SaaS, and AI for cybersecurity.
Beyond the AI application sector, Elon Musk's announcement of open-sourcing the X platform's content recommendation algorithm sparked interest in GEO concept stocks (referring to listed companies related to generative engine optimization technology). These stocks experienced collective price surges, further driving the fund's NAV upward.
The short-term dramatic increase in the fund's returns served as powerful advertising. According to the "Shanghai Securities News," on January 12 alone, subscriptions for this fund through just the Ant Fund channel reached 12 billion yuan.
In response to this report, Debenture Fund stated to media that daily scale data for public fund products is non-public information and the final figures should be based on periodic reports, cautioning investors against being misled by unverified information. Nevertheless, the fund's performance on that day indicated substantial capital inflows.
Despite denying the market rumors, Debenture Fund tightened purchase restrictions twice within 48 hours to protect the interests of existing holders and maintain stable fund asset operations. Before the market opened on January 13, the single-day subscription limit per channel for Class A shares was set at 10 million yuan, and for Class C shares at 1 million yuan.
After the market closed that day, the restrictions were further tightened. Debenture Fund announced that starting January 14, the purchase limits for both share classes would be reduced to 100,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan, respectively, in an attempt to cool down the popular fund with strict controls.
Based on data from January 13, the average increase of the fund's top ten holdings was 6.06%, while the actual NAV increase for the day was only 0.05%. Calculations using this data suggest that due to the influx of new capital, if the manager failed to purchase a corresponding amount of underlying holdings promptly, the returns for existing shares of Debenture Stable Growth Mixed fund were diluted by a factor of 121.2 on January 13.
Yang Delong, Chief Economist at Qianhai开源基金, previously analyzed that excessively large fund scales typically increase operational difficulty, potentially impacting investment returns. Restricting large subscriptions primarily aims to protect existing holders' interests. From a sales perspective, purchase limits can create a perception of scarce availability, attracting more investors to subscribe within the limits due to a "scarcity effect."
Since mid-January, the NAV of Debenture Stable Growth has begun to decline. As of February 26, the latest NAV for Class A shares was 1.1664, reflecting a 7.94% decrease over the past month.
The core of public fund investment lies in long-term value. Short-term surges are often driven by sentiment and hype, and price increases detached from fundamentals are unsustainable and carry high liquidity risks.
With the regulatory penalty issued just half a month prior, Zuo Chang's resignation as Chairwoman of Debenture Fund and her replacement by the risk control veteran Wu Xiaochun inevitably leads market observers to speculate: Is this move intended to use the rectification period as an opportunity to strengthen the company's internal control defenses?
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