Would you trust Amazon to manage your life savings? In China, 588m people have put faith in an ecommerce group to find higher yields. Alibaba, which runs the world’s largest money market fund, has transformed asset management in China. Its affiliate Ant Financial has its sights on repeating this success through a joint venture with US-based Vanguard Group. 

The Shanghai subsidiary of the world’s largest mutual fund group will hold a 49 per cent stake in the partnership, with Ant taking the rest. Through Alibaba’s mobile payment service Alipay, Ant has access to 700m active users in China that keep $168bn in Ant’s funds. Vanguard will have arrived at the right time. 

Regulators have started opening China’s mutual fund market to allow foreign asset managers to own up to 51 per cent of Chinese fund joint ventures. Before, majority foreign-owned asset managers could not sell funds to local retail investors. JPMorgan is expected to be the first. Vanguard could follow suit later.