China's mutual fund industry has grown into the fourth biggest one in the world, achieving major headway in serving the real economy and managing household wealth in recent years, a chairman of the country's top securities regulator said on Monday.

The total assets under management, or AUM, of China's mutual fund industry has reached 23.5 trillion yuan ($3.6 trillion) by the end of July and ranked fourth globally, said Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

The amount marked a 160 percent jump from the end of 2016, when the industry's AUM ranked ninth in the world, Yi said on Monday at a conference held by the Asset Management Association of China, the industry's self-regulatory body.

China's private equity and venture capital funds also saw fast growth in the same period, whose total scale has grown by 200 percent from the end of 2016 to 12.6 trillion yuan. The total scale of private equity and venture capital funds ranked the second largest in the world.

Looking ahead, China will further promote the high-quality development of the fund industry, perfect related regulations, encourage more long-term investing behavior, and better safeguard the legitimate rights of investors, Yi said.