Banks to get go-ahead for fund business

Regulators are expected to give the go-ahead soon for commercial banks to launch fund management companies, state media reported. Full regulations should be in place within the year, the reports said, beginning with experiments allowing a few selected banks to try the new business together with foreign strategic investors. A senior official at the China Banking Regulatory Commission said the experiments would open the way to new profit sources for banks, whose income now largely comes from the interest rate gap between loans and deposits. Banks currently only act as sales agents or custodians for such funds.