# Patience to Build Internal Strength, Humility to Trace the Source——Interview with Zhang Hongtao, Vice President of Yunnan Trust

Ask AI · How can Yunnan Trust strengthen its core business?

As the economy continues to transform, the new asset management regulations and the “three-category” trust regulations are being fully implemented, leading to a reshaping of the trust industry—real estate, government credit, and channel businesses are continuously shrinking. Trust companies face performance pressures while still developing proactive management capabilities in core businesses like asset service trusts and asset management trusts. Homogenized competition is becoming more intense.

In this context, Zhang Hongtao, Vice President and Secretary of the Board of Yunnan Trust, told Shanghai Securities News in an exclusive interview that transformation is an essential path to return to the trustor’s core and achieve sustainable development. As a veteran who entered the industry in 1993, Zhang Hongtao understands deeply that the essence of trust is serving the real economy, not just financing tools. As long as the positioning is clear and internal skills are strengthened, trust industry has great potential in serving the real economy and residents’ wealth management. Therefore, in recent years, Yunnan Trust has not only vigorously developed standard products but also actively explored core businesses like pension trusts and family trusts.

What is the core of trust? Regarding this industry-wide question, Zhang Hongtao’s answer is: “Trust is based on trust and entrusted accordingly. Its core is not financing tools or capital arbitrage tools, but professional asset services.”

Zhang Hongtao, who joined Yunnan Trust right after graduating from university in 1993, is a veteran in the trust industry. With over 30 years of experience, he has witnessed the industry’s early development and the decade of rapid growth in scale. In his view, trust has been closely linked with the real economy since its inception. Today, amid ongoing economic transformation, industry transformation is imperative.

“In the past, the trust industry achieved ‘double growth’ in scale and profit through institutional dividends, and simply holding a trust license could lead to ‘easy wins.’ However, during this process, some trust businesses deviated from their original purpose, turning into financing tools serving the needs of borrowers. Recently, under regulatory guidance to return to the core, although painful, this is crucial for the long-term sustainable development of the trust industry.”

For Zhang Hongtao, returning to the core of trust means returning to the trustee’s role, focusing on residents’ wealth management needs and the direction of real economy transformation, leveraging the flexibility of the trust system and asset management capabilities to create value for economic development and residents’ income growth.

He explained that Yunnan Trust has been actively adjusting its business structure in recent years. Currently, standard product business accounts for over 50%, and wealth management trust scale has surpassed 100 billion yuan, completely changing the previous business structure dominated by non-standard assets.

Breaking the ice: Deepening standard products to strengthen internal skills

Once the direction is clear, perseverance is key. But developing standard products is no easy task.

Compared to public funds, securities firms, and other institutions, trust companies generally face high initial technology investment and weak research capabilities when developing standard products. Yunnan Trust chooses to leverage strengths and focus on quality.

“We insist on building a fixed income research team and attracting top quantitative investment talent, aiming to balance short-term returns with long-term strategic layout,” said Zhang Hongtao. In product positioning, the company “pursues excellence rather than quantity,” focusing on creating boutique fixed income products. By the end of 2025, the company’s actively managed bond business will have a scale of 35.919 billion yuan. Meanwhile, to meet investors’ diversified asset allocation needs, the company has built a full product line with risk ratings from R1 to R5, including high-yield, cross-border, and “fixed income+” products.

On the capital market side, Yunnan Trust has made MOM (manager of managers fund) its core focus, empowering through financial technology to provide professional asset allocation services for bank wealth management subsidiaries, insurance institutions, and others. Several leading securities firms have completed system connection testing.

It’s worth noting that Yunnan Trust, which focuses on standard products, also serves the local economy by leveraging regional advantages.

Zhang Hongtao said that since 2020, the company has invested over 100 billion yuan in bonds issued by Yunnan enterprises, contributing to stabilizing the valuation of local platform company bonds in the secondary market. The company also actively constructs trust transaction structures to facilitate the issuance of primary market bonds for Yunnan enterprises.

Expanding new horizons: Core businesses have great potential

Besides standard products, Yunnan Trust is also active in the asset service trust sector, which directly impacts people’s livelihoods.

“Exploring and innovating in core businesses must start from market demand,” said Zhang Hongtao. He noted that pension finance is one of the “five major articles” in finance, but currently lacks comprehensive lifecycle solutions. Finding differentiated strategies that leverage trust system advantages and the company’s resources has been a strategic focus.

Recently, Yunnan Trust established a dedicated primary business department, conducting in-depth research on employee benefits and payroll management related to pension needs. The company has also launched relevant products. Additionally, to support related business development, significant technological resources have been invested in developing a specialized management system. This system covers the entire lifecycle of pension trusts, providing integrated one-stop services in scheme design, system establishment, trust operation, information disclosure, valuation, settlement, and income distribution, offering beneficiaries comprehensive care and service.

Currently, Yunnan Trust’s pension trust services benefit about 30,000 people, with a management scale exceeding 6 billion yuan. Zhang Hongtao believes that China’s multi-layered pension system includes basic pension insurance (first pillar), enterprise and occupational annuities (second pillar), and personal pensions and other commercial pension products (third pillar). In the future, if the first and second pillars open more to trust companies and with supportive policies like tax incentives, trust firms can further expand pension trust asset types and contribute more to pension finance development.

During the interview, Zhang Hongtao often expressed hope when talking about core businesses. He believes that as long as trust companies focus on the real economy and residents’ needs, and continue to deepen their core businesses, laying a solid foundation, cultivating proactive management capabilities, they will eventually see a flourishing scene.

Source: China Trust Industry Association