China fines Tiger Brokers subsidiaries 308.1 million yuan
Key Facts
UP Fintech, which operates Tiger Brokers, announced total administrative fines of about 308.1 million yuan against its subsidiaries in regulatory actions disclosed in May 2026. The company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the subsidiaries concerned received investigation notices from the Beijing office of the China Securities Regulatory Commission on 22 May 2026. The actions concerned unlicensed securities, fund and futures activities in mainland China. The penalties included the confiscation of total illicit income of about 103.1 million yuan, in addition to the administrative fines. Tianhua Wu, the company's chief executive and controlling shareholder, also received a warning and a personal fine of 1.25 million yuan. The company announced its acceptance of the penalty, saying in its filing: "The company sincerely accepts the penalty."
The actions are part of a China Securities Regulatory Commission crackdown targeting overseas institutions conducting unlicensed business in the country. According to the regulator, the remedial measures extend to domestic entities affiliated with these institutions or cooperating with them to provide services. They also cover intermediaries that solicit domestic investors and platforms that disseminate information in breach of regulations. The commission had previously announced a ban on soliciting new domestic investors and opening new accounts at Futu and Tiger. Under the earlier measures, it allowed existing domestic investors to continue trading through the overseas institutions they already used.
The remediation plan announced in May, however, limits services permitted during the transition period for clients located in China to selling existing holdings and withdrawing funds. It prohibits the unlawful provision of buying and fund deposit services, restricting transactions that allow additional investments through those institutions. The regulator described the permitted channel as "one-way sell transactions and outward fund transfers." The commission said "the safety of investors' assets is not affected by the remedial measures." In directing domestic investors towards overseas investment, the regulator identified legal channels including the southbound Hong Kong Stock Connect programme. It also listed the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor programme and the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect programme among those channels.
Against this business backdrop, UP Fintech's first-quarter results showed total revenue of $154.9 million. Revenue rose 26.3% from the corresponding quarter a year earlier, according to the earnings filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It fell 11.8% from the previous quarter, however, combining annual growth with a quarterly decline. The company included the impact of the fines and confiscation under "Other, net" in its quarterly statement of comprehensive income. Assets held by mainland Chinese retail clients in the company's consolidated accounts represented about 10% of total client assets at the end of 2025.
In the market, shares of UP Fintech and Futu fell sharply on the day the crackdown was announced in May, according to Investing.com. UP Fintech shares dropped 35.3% in early trading that day. They traded at $3.78 per share in the trading covered by the report. Futu shares fell 37.1% to $77.86. Both stocks thus lost more than a third of their value during the early trading covered by the report on the day of the announcement.
The official plan announced in May 2026 set a two-year period of concentrated remediation to end illegal cross-border activities and wind down existing business. The commission lists winding down that business among the period's objectives, alongside ending the unlawful activities. During this period, services for clients located in China are subject to the restrictions on selling and withdrawing funds set out in the plan. At the end of the remediation period, the plan requires overseas institutions to shut down their websites in China. The closure requirement also extends to trading software and supporting services in the country, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission.