I’ve gotten used to buying investments on Alipay, and I plan to handle my personal pension all in one place, investing entirely in broad market indices. After a lot of trouble finding customer service and getting the account properly linked, I was completely blindsided: Alipay only showed an account balance, and I couldn’t see any details of the funds I’d previously purchased. The data synchronization is really lacking! Is this some kind of bug?

Messy Analysis

• The cooperation between Alipay and Bank of China is not deep enough, leading to data synchronization issues.
• Banks deliberately refuse to provide Alipay with the corresponding data.
• The Alipay integration personnel are not familiar with the business, causing the problems encountered.

Truth

I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and the customer service representative didn’t understand my problem either, saying they would get back to me later. I had a little extra cash in my account, so I looked into buying some funds, comparing them, and also checking if the bank’s sales fees were the same as Alipay’s fees.

The costs associated with purchasing funds are primarily comprised of two parts: transaction fees (including subscription fees and redemption fees, deducted directly when buying and selling) and holding fees (including management fees, custodial fees, and sales service fees, automatically deducted daily from the fund’s net asset value). A distributor platform (like Alipay) acts as an intermediary, its revenue primarily coming from commissions on subscription fees, sales service fees for Class C funds, and a “customer maintenance fee” (commonly known as trail commission) returned to it in proportion from the fund company’s management fees – particularly relevant in products with a universal coverage nature like personal pensions, where management fees are halved and subscription fees are waived, resulting in a relatively lower share of profits for the distributor platform.

After searching around, I found that Hua Xia Fund’s fees were the lowest. Referencing historical articles: Domestic Ultra-Large ETF Batch Price Cuts

Suddenly, my mind clicked – I purchased the fund through a bank channel, not Alipay. Since Alipay didn’t earn corresponding money, it wouldn’t show me the data.

This fleeting “truth,” though slightly mocking of commercial logic, actually reveals the reality of financial data synchronization: “Whoever sells, manages, and serves”.

At the underlying logic of the financial system, distributor platforms don’t have fully interconnected account systems. Even if you link your personal pension funds account in Alipay to a Bank of China personal banking account, Alipay plays more like a “payment and information query portal” rather than an “asset manager.” The fund purchase confirmation and holding details recorded in the Bank of China’s distributor system are not directly accessible by Alipay; it lacks permission to call up these private holdings details across banks. In other words, this isn’t just about “not making money so they don’t show you the data,” but also about the technical barriers brought on by compliance and data ownership.

Unexpected Comparison

While waiting for the customer service representative to call back, I compared the fees on both sides, and it confirmed my previous theory:

• Fee Consistency: The Y class shares specifically designated for individual retirement accounts were indeed “fee stars.” Regardless of whether it was at Bank of China or Alipay, their management fees and custodial fees were essentially 50% off the original A/C class shares, with subscription fees almost always being 0% or 10% off.

• Channel Differences: Although the fees were consistent, the “feel” on both sides was completely different. The bank tended to promote its own wealth management products or deeply collaborated insurance policies, while Alipay’s interface leaned more towards big data index recommendations.

Conclusion

It seems the only way to enjoy Alipay’s smooth holding analysis and profit/loss curve is to follow the “buy where, see where” approach. If you’re striving for a truly “one-stop” experience, you might have to reluctantly redeem your existing holdings (if redemption fees aren’t involved) and re-invest directly within Alipay.

After all the twists and turns, I finally realized: The “interconnectivity” of financial software is still a long road ahead. Since they refuse to cooperate, I can only work harder myself – with my left hand managing deposits with Bank of China and my right hand investing in new funds through Alipay. After all, it’s more important to keep a close eye on your own wallet than a small difference in fees.