Futu, Tiger Brokers Face User Information Security Risks: People’s Daily Online

BEIJING, October 14 (TMTPOST)— Chinese state-owned People’s Daily Online has called out cross-border Internet securities trading platforms Futu and Tiger Brokers for data security risks and potential compliance issues.

Source: Visual China

The online version of the newspaper pointed out in an article that Internet securities brokers will face new compliance challenges in handling the personal information they collect from residents in mainland China while the Personal Information Protection Law has specified the rules for handling cross-border communication of personal data.

Users will need to provide information of their Chinese ID card, bank account details, education background, professions, income, assets and other information in order to open a trading account on Futu’s trading app Futuniuniu. After submitting the information, users are also required to undergo a facial recognition scan for verification.

Futu now has over 15.5 million registered users and more than one million users with assets while Tiger Brokers has over one million users. According to the latest share price, Futu is valued at RMB78.5 billion while Tiger Brokers is valued at RMB10.8 billion.

China Securities Regulatory Commission had already flagged a number of trading platforms that provide trading services on American shares and Hong Kong shares, including Tiger Brokers, People’s Daily Online said. According to China Securities Regulatory Commission, besides QDII (Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor) and Shanghai-HK Stock Connect, the commission has not approved any other agencies to provide cross-border securities trading services for domestic investors.

Chinese stockbroker shares had experienced a price slump Thursday due to the article. Futu, for example, saw a 16% drop in share price before trading time. According to Futu, the company had made timely contact with the task force responsible for regulatory adjustment and monitoring and had completed all required adjustments on August 2nd, 2019. Futu stated that the company will continue to assess and monitor its own compliance status and make active communication with relevant regulators. The company had also organized its specialists to study the Personal Information Protection Law and established a dedicated team to check compliance status.

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