New investment quotas quickly "go live" QDII products collectively open for business

In recent days, following the State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s approval of a new batch of QDII investment quotas, multiple public fund institutions have quickly taken action to allocate the quotas to their popular QDII products. From March 31 to April 1, a range of popular QDII products—including the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Nasdaq Biotechnology, U.S. dollar-denominated bonds, and Hang Seng Tech—have successively announced increases in their subscription limits. Some newly approved QDII quotas have already been promptly issued to investors for subscription.

In recent years, overseas investing has remained highly popular. Tight QDII quotas not only drive funds to rush in, pushing up the premium rates of exchange-traded products, but also lead off-exchange products to keep adding restrictions on subscriptions—sometimes to the point of “closing the door to visitors.” Industry institutions believe that after these additional QDII quotas are added, it will help improve the subscription experience for products and stabilize market expectations. In the allocation of quotas, the product side may depend on the fund manager’s comprehensive considerations of product types, market demand, and risk-return characteristics, while the sales side may face competition and game-playing across different sales lines.

Relaxed subscription limits for QDII products

Recently, several public-offering QDII products have relaxed their subscription limits.

According to the announcements, the subscription limit for Morgan S&P 500 Index (QDII) Renminbi shares was increased from 50 yuan to 100 yuan; the subscription limit for Fullgoal NASDAQ 100 ETF Initiated Linked Fund (QDII) Renminbi shares was increased from 100 yuan to 50k yuan; Fullgoal NASDAQ Biotechnology ETF has resumed subscription business, and meanwhile the subscription limit for its linked fund’s Renminbi shares was increased from 1,000 yuan to 50k yuan.

Several QDII products that previously had been “closing the door to visitors” have successively “opened the door to welcome customers.” Tianhong Nasdaq 100 Index Initiated (QDII), Tianhong S&P 500 Initiated (QDII-FOF), and 宝盈 Nasdaq 100 Index Initiated (QDII) have all resumed handling subscriptions. The first two QDII products paused large subscriptions above 1,000 yuan, while the latter paused large subscriptions above 50k yuan.

Not only index products—some active-type QDII products are also easing subscription limits. This time, the subscription limit for Manulife India Stock (QDII) was increased from 500 yuan to 100k yuan; the subscription limits for 华夏 Overseas Enjoy Mixed Initiated (QDII) and 华夏 Mobile Internet Mixed (QDII) Renminbi shares were increased from 5,000 yuan to 10k yuan; Great Wall Global New Energy Vehicle Stock Initiated (QDII) has resumed large-sum subscription business and no longer sets an upper limit on subscription amounts.

Bond-type QDII products have also taken relaxation measures. BOC U.S. Dollar Bond (QDII) and BOC Asia-Pacific Selected Bond (QDII) both increased the subscription limit for Renminbi shares from 100k yuan to 300k yuan; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Global U.S. Dollar Bond has even continuously loosened its subscription restrictions. It previously increased its subscription limit from 100 yuan to 5,000 yuan, and has further increased it to 500k yuan.

This time, Hong Kong stock QDII products are generally more “generous” in terms of quota. The subscription limits for Huaan Hang Seng Tech ETF Initiated Linked Fund (QDII) and Huaan Hang Seng Internet Technology Industry ETF Initiated Linked Fund (QDII) were increased from 500 yuan and 5,000 yuan respectively to 1M yuan; the subscription limit for Fullgoal Hang Seng Tech ETF Linked Initiated (QDII) was increased from 50k yuan to 200k yuan.

Subscription experience expected to improve

A table released on March 27 by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange showing the approval status of investment quotas for Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors (QDII) indicates that on March 23, 2026, domestic institutions such as public fund companies were approved for a new batch of QDII quotas—this is 9 months after the previous approval.

This time, securities fund-type institutions together newly obtained nearly $3 billion in QDII quotas. Total QDII quotas increased from $50k previously to $50k.

Among them, funds such as E Fund, Huaxia Fund, 广发基金, Boshi Fund, Morgan Asset Management, Huaan Fund, Harvest Fund, Tianhong Fund, Guotai Fund, Huatai-Pinebridge Fund, Fullgoal Fund, Huabao Fund, Dacheng Fund, Invesco Great Wall Fund, Manulife Fund, Vanjia Fund, Oriental Red Asset Management, Pioneer King & Trust Fund, Anxin Fund, etc., all added $80 million in QDII quota each. Southfund, CMB Fund, Penghua Fund, Yinxiang Fund, Guohai Franklin Fund, Europe China Fund, Bank of China Fund, Changxin Fund, Great Wall Fund, ICBC Credit Suisse Fund, BOC Barclays? (Pingshun Ansheng) Fund? (note: keep as original names if present), China Life Asset Management, Bao Ying Fund, etc. all added $60 million in QDII quota each.

Guotai Fund stated that the newly added QDII quotas will effectively ease issues such as subscription restrictions and high premiums in the exchange market for previously popular products caused by insufficient quotas. Most products are expected to resume normal subscriptions. Investors no longer need to rush in at high prices, which will help improve product subscription experiences and stabilize market expectations.

Tight quota allocation becomes a challenge

After the newly approved QDII quotas, how they will be allocated is a hot topic of concern in the industry.

A reporter from China Securities Journal learned from Guotai Fund that after the new batch of QDII quotas was approved, the company will coordinate and allocate them reasonably based on the overall overseas investment layout, product operation needs, and investors’ actual allocation situations. The allocation of QDII quotas is mainly used for public-offering products to ensure business is carried out smoothly and in an orderly manner. The timing and sequence of quota deployment are mainly determined by a comprehensive assessment of product types, market demand, risk-return characteristics, and compliance operation conditions, so as to steadily meet investors’ cross-border asset allocation needs.

In addition, some public-offering industry practitioners told the China Securities Journal reporter that the allocation of QDII quotas mainly takes into account factors such as the investment direction of QDII products and the current valuation level, and selects suitable windows to ease subscription restrictions—for example, “if U.S. stock funds have been seeing more pullbacks recently, and if the fund company still expects the outlook for U.S. stocks to be favorable, and judges that now is an appropriate allocation window, then QDII quotas may be prioritized for this type of product.”

Tight QDII quotas will also put fund companies in competition and a “game” internally across their sales lines.

“Some QDII products that invest in U.S. stock technology sector have outstanding historical performance, so they don’t really worry about sales. Especially when the popularity on internet platforms is very high, once QDII quotas are released, the news spreads quickly on social platforms, attracting many C-end investors to add positions on their own, and the quotas are taken up fast—basically within no time. Therefore, after newly approved QDII quotas are released, how they are allocated among the institution side, channels, and internet finance sales lines may depend on the internal judgment within the fund company,” the public-offering practitioner revealed.

To encourage the development of inclusive finance, regulators previously required fund companies to prioritize QDII quotas for public-offering products and reduce the quota proportion for separate-account products. The China Securities Journal reporter learned from industry sources that some fund companies have already begun liquidating QDII separate-account products held to maturity, in order to free up more QDII quotas to provide to public-offering products. Some fund companies strictly control the scale of QDII separate-account products and steadily optimize the existing structure, to ensure that the overall quota allocation aligns with policy directions and requirements for inclusive finance.

(Editor: Xu Nannan)

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