中国“监管风暴”冲击对冲基金业

China’s crackdown on debt has slammed the country’s nascent hedge fund industry, as a bear market in bonds prompts banks to withdraw funds they had parked with external bond managers, cutting a key source of funds. Hedge funds barely existed in China five years ago, at least not formally, though a small group of superstar fund managers had operated in a regulatory grey zone.

中国对债务的打击冲击了国内新兴的对冲基金业。债券市场熊市促使银行撤回先前存放于外部债券管理公司的资金，切断了后者的一个主要资金来源。5年前，对冲基金在中国几乎不存在(至少不正式存在)，尽管少数几位明星基金经理在监管灰色地带操作。

The industry boomed during the stock bubble of 2015, with the number of hedge funds increasing to more than 15,000 at the end of that year from less than 4,000 a year earlier. A wave of experienced asset managers left jobs at state-owned mutual fund companies and investment banks, lured by the possibility of bigger pay packages linked to the rising market.

对冲基金业在2015年股市泡沫期间蓬勃发展，截至当年底，对冲基金的数量从上一年的不足4000只增至逾1.5万只。受到伴随股市飙涨的更大“薪酬包”的诱惑，国有共同基金公司和投资银行的经验丰富的资产经理们纷纷跳槽。

The bursting of the stock bubble in the summer of 2015 dealt a blow to equity hedge funds, but a subsequent run-up in the bond market sustained the industry through 2016.

2015年夏股市泡沫的破裂对股票对冲基金造成了打击，但随后出现的债券市场涨势帮助对冲基金业挺过了2016年。

But bonds suffered a rout last year, as the central bank pushed up interest rates and the regulator launched a “regulatory windstorm” that discouraged banks from using leverage to boost returns on bond investments. Employment in the “private fund” industry, which includes private equity, venture funds and hedge funds, fell by nearly 40,000 in the 12 months to the end of January, according to the Asset Management Association of China (Amac).

但去年债券市场遭遇了重创，央行提高利率，而监管机构发起“监管风暴”，阻止了银行利用杠杆来提振债券投资的回报率。中国证券投资基金业协会(AMAC)的数据显示，在截至今年1月底的12个月里，包括私人股本、风险基金和对冲基金在内的“私募基金”行业的从业人数减少了近4万人。

“Last year, the industry started to polarise. Superstar managers expanded fiercely, but most institutions are having big difficulties raising funds,” said Tao Yu, a partner at Brilliance Asset, a Shanghai-based hedge fund. “Financial regulation keeps getting stricter. Private funds that used to partner with banks and trust companies are searching for a new business model.”

“去年，该行业开始出现两极分化。超级明星管理公司拼命扩张，但多数机构在筹资方面遇到了很大的困难，”总部位于上海的对冲基金金元百利(SGBAMC)合伙人Tao Yu表示，“金融监管变得越来越严。过去与银行和信托公司合作的私募基金正在寻找一种新的商业模式。”

In January alone, Amac revoked registrations for 21 private fund institutions because the association lost contact with them entirely, compared with only 68 such incidents in the three years to the end of 2017. Bonds are the asset of choice backing wealth management products — short-maturity investments that banks market to household and corporate clients as a higher-yielding alternative to traditional term deposits.

仅在1月份，由于完全失联，中国证券投资基金业协会就撤销了21家私募基金机构的注册，而在截至2017年底的3年里，此类事件只发生过68起。债券是支持理财产品(银行对家庭和企业客户营销的短期投资，是对传统定期存款的更高收益替代品)的首选资产。

Small and mid-size banks, which lack expertise in asset management, often farm out the management to external managers. So-called entrusted investments by banks became a crucial source of inflows for hedge funds. “Tighter regulation has hit entrusted investment, plus the bond market was weak. Most banks decided to cash out their investments on maturity,” said Dong Chunxiao at Pacific Securities in Beijing. “I think this is a long-term trend.”

缺乏资产管理专长的中小型银行，经常将资产管理外包给外部管理机构。银行所谓的委托投资成为对冲基金资金流入的重要来源。“更严格的监管打击了委托投资，加上债券市场疲软。多数银行决定到期提取投资，”太平洋证券(Pacific Securities)在北京的股票策略师董春晓表示，“我认为这是一个长期趋势。”