September 3, 2026 (InvestinChina.asia) – The Securities Association of China (SAC) is soliciting industry feedback on the Guidelines on Comprehensive Account Management for Securities Company Clients (Draft for Comment), a move that would convert a four-year pilot program into routine, industry-wide business and bring a host of practical changes to tens of millions of brokerage clients. The draft, guided by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), was circulated to securities firms at the end of August.
From Pilot to Standard: 21 Firms, Four Years of Practice
The CSRC launched the account management function optimization pilot in 2021, directing brokerages to optimize the existing account model along three dimensions: establishing a comprehensive client account, enabling transfers between accounts under the same name, and introducing classified account management. To date, 21 securities firms have obtained pilot qualifications, and after more than four years of operation the business has run smoothly and accumulated replicable experience.
The draft guidelines comprise nine chapters and 47 articles, covering general provisions, comprehensive account management, fund transfers between same-name accounts, classified sub-account management, account data query services, internal controls, information reporting and data submission, self-regulatory management, and supplementary provisions. In drafting the rules, SAC emphasized four core principles: compliance and security bottom lines; building on pilot practice while accommodating universal applicability; a risk-oriented approach with full-process controls; and a client-centric philosophy to enhance service experience.
Breaking the “Funds Island” Trap: One Screen, All Assets
Under the traditional model, a client’s ordinary cash account, margin account and options account operate independently, forming “funds islands” that make money transfers cumbersome and force investors to toggle between multiple ports to view their full asset base and returns. The new comprehensive account, built on unified identity recognition, links all of a client’s cash and securities accounts under a single framework, enabling a one-screen view of all assets, positions and earnings.
Qualified brokerages may, on top of the unified view, provide same-name fund transfers, classified sub-account management, account data queries, and other services approved by the CSRC and SAC — such as capital planning and asset allocation advice.
Same-Name Transfers: Tiered Access, Strict Guardrails
The most closely watched feature is the ability to transfer funds between same-name accounts. The draft restricts this service to accounts within the third-party custodial framework for client trading settlement funds — at the current stage, only ordinary cash accounts, margin accounts and stock options accounts may participate. Transfers must occur between signed accounts, the service window is nominally 9:00 to 16:00, and funds received may be used for trading or withdrawn on the same day.
Access is tiered. To activate same-name transfers, a client must have a normal account status, no record of dishonesty in the securities or futures market, and not be on any key-monitoring list. In addition, at least one of the following must hold:
(1) the client has already opened a margin cash account; (2) the client has already opened a stock options cash account; or (3) for clients holding only an ordinary cash account, the account must have been open for at least three months, the client must have traded securities for at least half a year, and the average daily assets over the 20 trading days before activation must be no less than RMB 500,000.
The RMB 500,000 threshold and trading-experience requirement for ordinary-account-only clients are designed to guard against money-laundering and telecom-fraud risks at the source, matching the function’s availability to the client’s risk awareness. Brokerages are required to control transfer limits and frequency, conduct intraday monitoring, and ensure full audit trails.
Sub-Accounts: Single Layer, No Shadow Channels
On classified sub-accounts, the draft draws clear red lines. Brokerages may open only a single layer of classified fund sub-accounts under a cash account, and for clients already using single-client multi-bank custodial services, sub-accounts may only be opened under the primary cash account. Sub-accounts must share the same identity recognition, suitability management and risk controls as the parent account — they cannot be used as independent login entries and cannot directly accept deposits or withdrawals.
Risk metrics of the parent account and its sub-accounts must be calculated on a consolidated basis, centrally monitored and uniformly tracked, explicitly forbidding the use of sub-accounts to split transaction sizes, disperse holdings, or circumvent regulation.
Six-Month Transition, Old-for-New Grandfathering
To ensure a smooth handover, the draft sets a six-month transition period: the 21 pilot brokerages must complete business standardization within six months of the guidelines taking effect and report their compliance status to SAC. Existing clients who already activated same-name transfers during the pilot are exempt from re-verification against the new access criteria under a grandfathering arrangement, though brokerages must still review their account status and trading behavior and apply appropriate controls where anomalies are found.
Infrastructure for the Wealth-Management Pivot
Industry participants describe the comprehensive account as far more than a convenience upgrade. By unifying formerly fragmented data scattered across separate business systems, brokerages can build a complete client profile, laying the groundwork for personalized wealth-management services, ETF-specific management, vertical advisory, and beyond.
“This is fundamentally a good thing — it improves client experience by letting them see all their assets at one institution on a single interface,” a wealth-management executive at a major brokerage told the media. “For the brokerage, the unified account makes underlying data interoperable, which helps refine client profiling and tailor niche offerings, such as designing standalone accounts for ETF investing.”
A non-bank financial analyst noted that comprehensive accounts can activate clients’ idle funds, enable more precise matching between advisory teams and clients, and enhance stickiness for brokerages with stronger wealth-management capabilities — potentially intensifying the Matthew effect in the industry. However, whether the reform drives fresh inflows depends on improvements in demand creation and the broader capital-market environment.
With the guidelines’ implementation, competition among brokerages is poised to shift from product shelves and commission rates toward account-service capability — the underlying infrastructure that will define retail and institutional competitiveness for the next five to ten years.