Tencent earns third-party fund sales license

BEIJING - Chinese tech giant Tencent made a further foray into internet finance by earning the qualification for third-party fund sales.

A subsidiary with Tencent is now allowed to sell funds, by the securities watchdog in Shenzhen, according to a statement released Tuesday on the government agency's website.

The greenlight for fund sales followed the official nod for Tencent to run insurance agent business last October, expanding the company's presence in the financial sector, ranging from payment to wealth management and microloan businesses.

Before the approval, funds were sold on Tencent's wealth management platform qian.qq.com to customers by linking them to fund firms or third-party fund sales agencies.

The qualification is expected to boost funds sales on qian.qq.com thanks to the 980 million-plus monthly active users on Tencent's popular instant messaging tool WeChat.