Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Union Chairman: Virtual Asset Regulatory Approach Should Not Be Applied to Traditional Securities Industry

Odaily Planet Daily reports that Chen Zhihua, President of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association, commented on the dispute over broker clients’ “pre-registration of designated bank accounts.” He stated that while the regulatory circular proposes establishing a bank account registration mechanism and setting limits, the related practice may stem from inappropriately applying virtual asset regulatory ideas (such as pre-approving wallet addresses) to the traditional securities industry. Chen Zhihua pointed out that because blockchain addresses make it difficult to verify ownership instantly, pre-approval has technical rationality. However, in traditional securities, fund flows can already be confirmed through mechanisms like “matching accounts with the same name,” so there is no need for a blanket restriction on the number of accounts. Compared to the EU anti-money laundering framework, the regulatory focus should be on penetrating the beneficial ownership and identifying suspicious transactions, rather than preemptively restricting accounts. He also suggested that regulators adhere to a “risk-based” approach, focus on abnormal fund flows (such as “layered transactions”), clarify compliance standards for same-name accounts, and promote the use of big data and AI in anti-money laundering monitoring. (Orange News)