China Has 250,000 Online Stock InvestorsChina now has 250,000 online stock investors, while online trading makes up one percent of the country's total stock trading volume, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has said.In a press release Tuesday, the CSRC said more than 200 securities brokers nationwide are providing online brokerage services, and more brokers are expected to follow suit. The watchdog said online stock trading has existed in China for two years without unified technical standards and regulations, which posed growing risks to investors and prompted the CSRC's recent issue of temporary regulations on Internet stock brokerage. The CSRC said its regulations are a result of two years of market experiments and discussions among all sides concerned, and borrowed from the experiences of other countries. Though the regulations ban computer technology companies, Internet and information companies from taking commissions for transactions in their co-operation with securities companies, the CSRC said they can provide technological support or information services to securities companies in any other form. The regulations demand that securities companies' technical systems must conform to certain standards, for example, the systems must have real-time monitoring functions and must be separated from brokers' other operation systems. Securities companies must also have strict in-house controls and provide account statements to customers regularly. They can impose restrictions on the maximum value of a single deal or that of trading by a single investor in a single day. The CSRC said all these provisions are designed to minimize the risks for investors as well as for securities companies. The CSRC reminded investors to be prudent in choosing websites and brokers, and to notify their brokers immediately if discrepancies appear in their account statements. |
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