When discussing mutual fund companies, names like E Fund, China Asset Management, and GF Fund usually come to mind first. Yet there is one firm that, despite not having the largest scale or the most headlines, possesses two major advantages that even many top-tier competitors envy: that firm is Haitong Fund.
First Advantage: Three Pension Licenses, a Rarity Even Among Market Leaders
In China, the authority to manage retirement savings is not easily granted. The pension management licenses are divided into three categories: enterprise annuity investment manager, social security fund domestic entrusted investment manager, and basic pension fund securities investment manager. Holding all three is known in the industry as having a "full pension license." In 2005, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced the first batch of enterprise annuity investment managers, and Haitong Fund was selected alongside nine other firms, including China Asset Management, Southern Asset Management, and E Fund. Twenty years later, only 11 fund companies are involved in enterprise annuity management—just two more have been added since then. The approval process for this license is excruciatingly slow, but it has created a very wide moat for those who secured it early. In 2010, Haitong Fund was appointed as a domestic entrusted investment manager by the National Council for Social Security Fund. In 2016, it was also among the first to receive the basic pension fund securities investment manager qualification. It took 11 years to obtain all three licenses. Why is this advantage difficult to replicate? Because these licenses cannot be bought with money. They require not just capital, but credentials—a first-mover advantage, especially since approvals have been rare for a long time, and many large leading companies still lack them.
Second Advantage: A Pioneer in Bond ETFs, a Decade of Dedication
If the pension licenses are Haitong Fund's "existing strength," then bond ETFs are its "growth weapon." As of August 2026, the total scale of Haitong Fund's bond ETFs exceeded 170 billion yuan, making it the fund company with the highest number, the most complete categories, and the largest management scale of bond ETFs in the entire market. The most notable product is the Haitong Fund CSI Short-Term Financing Bond ETF (511360). When this product was launched in August 2020, almost no one paid attention. At that time, the market was focused on chip ETFs and new energy ETFs; who would care about an ETF tracking short-term financing bonds? Five years later, the answer is clear. As of early August 2026, this short-term financing bond ETF had a scale of 83.5 billion yuan, making it the largest bond ETF in the market. In the past year, this product saw net subscriptions exceeding 46.2 billion yuan, ranking first among all bond ETFs. Its average daily trading volume has consistently remained above 25 billion yuan, with liquidity rivaling that of many mainstream broad-based ETFs. It's not just this one ETF. The Haitong Fund SSE Municipal Bond ETF (511220), launched in November 2014, was one of the earliest bond ETFs in China. It saw net subscriptions of 34.3 billion yuan in the past year, reaching a scale of over 50 billion yuan. Since 2026, the total net inflow for Haitong Fund's six bond ETFs has exceeded 53 billion yuan. In the ranking of net inflows for bond ETFs over the past year, Haitong Fund occupies the top two spots. Haitong Fund entered the bond ETF track very early. After the first bond ETF was launched in 2013, the market was tepid for six full years. Many early products were liquidated during this long winter, but Haitong Fund's municipal bond ETF was one of the few that survived and continued to grow. By the time the bond ETF market boomed in 2025, and other fund companies began to rush in, Haitong Fund had already been deeply cultivating this field for over a decade. Why is this advantage also difficult to replicate? The main reason is again approval documents; those who secured them first successfully took their positions. Haitong Fund is not a "glamorous" fund company. It lacks star fund managers that excite investors, lacks high-flying thematic products, and is never the main attraction for financial media. However, these two secret weapons are something that companies like Huaan Fund can only envy but cannot obtain.
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