The QDII scene in China has been at a standstill ever since Schroders' China JV with the Bank of Communications launched its Bocom Schroders Global Selection Fund on August 22 last year. Three weeks later, Lehman Brothers collapsed, AIG was bailed out and Merrill Lynch was forced into a marriage with Bank of America.
Alarmed at the chaos, decision makers at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe) froze foreign-exchange quota approvals for fund managers, which had hoped to launch products under the qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) programme.
The...