The new entity is the third international wealth management company to be set up in mainland China, an example of efforts by Western firms to penetrate China's wealth sector.

Schroder BOCOM Wealth Management Co, a partnership in China between UK-listed Schroders and Bank of Communications Wealth Management, has held its formal opening ceremony, a few weeks after securing a regulatory green light to start business.

The ceremony, held in Shanghai, was attended in person by Qing Wu, executive vice mayor of Shanghai, Cheng Hao, executive vice president of Bank of Communications Co, David Guo, chief executive, China, Schroders and Peter Harrison, group CEO, Schroders who participated in the ceremony virtually.

The organisation is the third international wealth management company to be established in mainland China, it said, and is the second venture between the two groups since forming the Bank of Communications Schroders Fund Management Co., Ltd in 2005.

“Schroders has long been committed to the Chinese market. It was in 1994 that we opened our first representative office in Shanghai and we have since then been developing our footprint in this exciting and dynamic country,” Harrison said in a statement yesterday.

The new venture will be led by the following people:

Jordan Chen, chairman, Schroder BOCOM Wealth Management (Chen is a doctor of business administration with 26 years’ experience in the investment management industry, of which 13 of those years have been with Schroders); Bing Liang, CEO, Schroder BOCOM Wealth Management, previously VP of Bank of Communications Wealth Management Co., Ltd. (Liang has 18 years of experience in onshore and offshore investments, asset management, product distribution and business management), and Johnnie Tsai, chief risk officer, Schroder BOCOM Wealth Management. (He has almost 20 years’ experience in risk management, having worked in a number of international asset management companies in Canada, the UK, the Taiwan region, and the Hong Kong SAR.)