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

Deep Tide TechFlow News, March 21 — According to Hong Kong media outlet Orange News, Chen Zhihua, President of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association, commented on the controversy over broker clients “pre-registering designated bank accounts.” He stated that while the regulatory circular proposes establishing a bank account registration mechanism with 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 justification. 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. Comparing this to the EU anti-money laundering framework, the regulatory focus should be on penetrating the beneficial ownership and identifying suspicious transactions, rather than imposing pre-conditions on accounts. He also suggested that regulators adhere to a “risk-based” approach, focusing on abnormal fund flows (such as “layered transactions”), clarifying compliance standards for same-name accounts, and promoting the use of big data and AI in anti-money laundering monitoring.