Urgent weekend cash needs but the stock market is "closed"? Several brokerages are testing 24/7 bank-stock transfers.

A journalist with @Securities Daily｜Wang Yandan    Editor of @Securities Daily｜Peng Shuping

Many investors have had experiences like this: on weekends or public holidays, you suddenly need money and want to withdraw from the stock market—when the system is down, you have to wait until after Monday at 8:30 a.m.; or at night you want to place an order for the evening session, but your account balance isn’t sufficient. You want to transfer funds from the bank, but you’re told that the bank-to-securities transfer system is closed.

As a core supporting service for securities trading, the timeliness of bank-to-securities transfers directly affects investors’ efficiency in using their funds. A reporter from @Securities Daily learned that, with the continuous upgrade of capital-market investors’ needs, convenient and efficient fund services have become one of the key focuses of competition in the industry. Several brokerage firms have already explored and launched 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer services, breaking the restrictions of traditional trading hours and enabling funds to be used “as soon as they are transferred.” Some brokerages have even made this a key point in their differentiated competition.

Multiple brokerages pilot 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer services

According to a reporter from @Securities Daily, the 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer service has now formed a certain scale of coverage. Different brokerages focus their business layouts differently, but they are still in the stage of pilot programs within parts of the industry.

Ping An Securities said that since the industry launched this service in 2019, it has supported eight major mainstream banks, including Ping An Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial Bank, Ningbo Bank, China Merchants Bank, Minsheng Bank, and Bank of Communications. In the future, it will promote more bank partnerships.

For Caitong Securities, regarding 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfers, it has already launched the service with five banks: Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, China Construction Bank, Industrial Bank, and Postal Savings Bank of China. It supports only ordinary three-party custody business.

Hualong Securities supports 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer services with four banks: Bank of Communications, Industrial Bank, Ping An, and Postal Savings Bank of China.

On February 26, Zhejiang Securities published a post on its official WeChat account stating that it has reached a cooperation agreement with Bank of Communications. It upgrades the 7×24-hour inflow service, and aside from system maintenance time, customers can transfer funds from their bank accounts to their securities accounts.

For Jinguo Securities, ordinary accounts are signed and linked to Ping An Bank for three-party custody, allowing 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfers. Credit accounts are not supported for now. For transfers from securities to bank, some fund accounts have a daily/single-transaction withdrawal limit of RMB 20 million (except for specially agreed terms). If the intended withdrawal amount exceeds the limit, you must contact a dedicated advisor or the 95310 desk in advance; during business hours on trading days, the company reviews and adjusts the withdrawal limit.

It is worth noting that, although some brokerages have not yet launched such services, investors can still achieve, to a certain extent, 7×24-hour fund transfers by purchasing specific wealth management products, and other methods. For example, Huatai Securities has launched a “Lingqianbao+” service. During trading hours, as well as in the evenings and on weekends, it supports instant withdrawals; the maximum instant-withdrawal额度 per day is RMB 200k.

From this, it can be seen that brokerages actively exploring 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer services are mainly those with certain-scale characteristics. Moreover, the partnerships between brokerages and banks vary. Ping An Bank, Bank of Communications, Industrial Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, and others cooperate with multiple brokerages; there are also some banks that cooperate only with specific brokerages.

It is also important to note that although 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfers provide “around-the-clock” convenience, they are not unlimited services. A reporter learned that some brokerages set a certain time window on trading days (usually 16:00 to 17:00, or even shorter) as a day-end business system preparation period. During this period, transfers are paused. Special business windows such as system upgrades and maintenance may also suspend transfers.

At the same time, compared with traditional bank-to-securities transfers, 7×24 services have no differences in terms of limits, timeliness, fees, and availability. But there are differences in withdrawable funds. For example, Caitong Securities’ policy is: the scope of funds that customers can withdraw during non-trading hours is the sum of the withdrawable funds from the previous trading day and the net funds transferred into the non-trading hours period. According to securities trading settlement rules, the net receivable funds from trading on the current day are still available on the next trading day (funds from selling shares on the current day and redemption funds from cash-type wealth management products are also available on the next trading day).

In addition, regarding interest accrual rules, Ping An Securities said that bank-to-securities transfers accrue interest by natural days: interest starts accruing on the day the funds are transferred in, and interest stops accruing on the day the funds are transferred out, without restrictions between trading days and non-trading days. Caitong Securities, meanwhile, said that the interest accrual rules for the securities account and the bank side are kept consistent. Funds transferred in and out during non-trading hours accrue interest based on 24:00 of the natural day as the reference point.

Brokerage insiders: 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfers do not require brokerages to pre-advance funds

There’s no doubt that fund safety is the core issue investors care about most, and it is also the bottom line for brokerages to carry out 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer services. So, do 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfers carry risks? Would brokerages need to pre-advance funds?

In response, a relevant person at Ping An Securities said that Ping An Securities’ 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer service strictly follows the third-party custody system and implements the same-name account transfer rules. It does not break through the existing regulatory framework. Customers’ funds are always handled by banks as the third-party custodian. Only transfers of funds between the customer’s own bank settlement account and the securities funds account are allowed, eliminating risks from the source such as cross-name transfers and misappropriation, and there is no pre-advancing of funds of any kind. In the identity verification and transaction password verification process, the company will strictly implement the fund account password and transaction password verification procedures to ensure the authenticity of the customer’s identity. At the same time, the company’s risk-control system will conduct intelligent monitoring across dimensions such as transfer amount, frequency, time window, and region, and issue warnings for scenarios that trigger suspicious transactions, such as suspicious behaviors involving theft of transfers or money laundering.

Caitong Securities said that it has already completed the regulatory filing procedures for launching 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer services and has strictly implemented anti-money-laundering requirements. 7×24 bank-to-securities transfers only relax the timing of deposit and withdrawal to non-trading hours; other aspects such as identity verification, transaction encryption, and abnormal transaction monitoring remain consistent with current rules. In addition, transferring from a securities account to a bank account also does not require the brokerage to use its settlement reserve funds to advance payments in advance. If, during non-trading hours, situations such as one-sided accounts, duplicate debits, or transfer anomalies occur, the company has formulated emergency handling plans for situations like one-sided accounts and transfer anomalies. Based on these plans, it will properly handle anomalies to effectively safeguard customers’ rights and interests.

In addition, multiple brokerages have also reminded investors that when using 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfers, they need to operate through the brokerage’s official app or official website, and be wary of fake platforms and phishing links. They should properly store account passwords, verification codes, and other information, and not disclose them to others. If abnormal funds are encountered, they should promptly report through official customer service channels to effectively protect their own fund safety.

Launching 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer services is one of the measures brokerages explore to attract high-quality customers and retain high-quality customers under the background of homogeneous competition in the capital market.

A brokerage insider told a reporter that its brokerage’s operations center is mainly responsible for negotiating with banks for 7×24-hour bank-to-securities transfer services. This service builds a differentiated competitive advantage through innovation in bank-to-securities service, providing an effective lever for business expansion.

According to February new account data disclosed by the Shanghai Stock Exchange on March 3, the number of new A-share accounts in that month was 200k, down 11% year over year and down 49% from January this year, when it was 4.9158 million. Meanwhile, CICC data shows that the latest monthly data for margin trading and securities lending (two financing) indicates that in February this year, the number of new accounts for two financing reached 117k, up 20% year over year, but down 38.6% month over month. In terms of new user types, individual investors’ enthusiasm is especially high. In February, the number of new accounts by individual investors was 2.5159 million, while new accounts by institutional investors were only 71,000.

Cover image source: AIGC