Savings bonds included in the scope of individual pension products Expert interpretation

The Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China released a notice regarding the inclusion of savings bonds in the scope of individual pension products. What impact will this have on individual investors? Currently, individual pension accounts can invest in five categories of products including funds, wealth management, savings, insurance, and government bonds. However, the overall options for investors are limited, affecting their investment enthusiasm and leading to a phenomenon of "account opening fever but investment cold". Dong Ximiao, Chief Researcher at Zhonglian Research Institute, stated that including savings bonds in the scope of individual pension products will further enrich the available investment products in individual pension accounts, which has various positive implications. For investors, savings bonds are safe and stable in terms of returns, making them attractive to conservative investors. Including them in the pool of individual pension products will provide investors with more choices and enhance their enthusiasm for investing in individual pension products. For the pension insurance system, this move will enrich the supply of products in individual pension accounts, better meeting the needs of people with different risk preferences and helping to improve the coverage and attractiveness of the individual pension system, thereby promoting the development of the third pillar of pension insurance. In addition, experts stated that individual pension funds are typically long-term funds, and bringing individual pension funds into the government bond market will bring important long-term funds to the market, thereby driving the development of the government bond market.