Flash News

TREE NEWS update: China’s securities regulator fined Chen Huan, Zhou Houlu and Li Pingping a combined 8 million yuan for manipulating the stock market between Feb. 20, 2023 and Aug. 1, 2024, the CSRC said in an administrative penalty notice. The three controlled multiple brokerage accounts held in others’ names and used concentrated capital and shareholding advantages to repeatedly trade and execute wash trades between accounts they controlled, affecting share prices and trading volumes. Chen and Li were each fined 3 million yuan and Zhou 2 million yuan, with market trading bans of three, three and two years respectively.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China’s Shanghai headquarters convened a meeting on free-trade-zone offshore bond business, reporting that 22 such bonds totaling about RMB 8.6 billion have been issued since the pilot launched over a year ago. The meeting reviewed pilot operations and offered policy guidance on FTU investment, commercial bank underwriting and domestic-guarantee offshore lending. The institutional framework is now largely in place, with diversified issuers and secondary-market trading underway.

TREE NEWS update: All 11 Democratic members of the Senate Banking Committee asked Chairman Tim Scott for a public hearing on prediction markets, arguing that some event contracts tied to corporate performance could fall under SEC oversight. The letter came as committee Republicans met with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour.

TREE NEWS reports: The Trump administration is considering joint ventures to spread dollar-backed stablecoins overseas, an effort that could involve the Treasury Department, the State Department and a federal development finance agency. The reported plan would pair government support with private companies to widen the dollar’s reach abroad.

TREE NEWS update: The China Securities Regulatory Commission has approved Shandong Caixin Investment Co. as a major shareholder of Tebon Securities, raising no objection to its acquisition of 420,681,000 shares, or 10% of the brokerage’s total share capital. The CSRC published the approval on its website.

TREE NEWS update: The Shenzhen Stock Exchange said it took self-regulatory measures against 106 cases of abnormal securities trading between September 21 and September 24, 2026, covering practices such as intraday price ramping and suppression and false order submissions. It also reviewed three major corporate matters and referred six leads on suspected violations to the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the Ministry of Public Security’s Traffic Management Bureau, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment’s Atmospheric Environment Department and the State Administration for Market Regulation’s Quality Development Bureau, convened a meeting with major manufacturers of trucks, buses, special-purpose vehicles, trailers and motorcycles. The four departments briefed the companies on the vehicle product safety situation and instructed them to carry out product safety hazard inspections and supervisory checks.

TREE NEWS reports: Some Chinese regional small banks are winding down existing out-of-province deposits, with one private bank planning to phase them out entirely by the end of 2027, a bank insider said. Financial regulators have tightened requirements for private and local commercial banks to operate within their home regions, forcing lenders that once relied heavily on internet platforms to raise deposits to convert those holdings into compliant local deposits.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China released its 2026 RMB internationalization report, pledging to further improve the basic institutional framework for cross-border RMB use to meet demand for settlement, investment, financing and risk management. The PBOC also said it will deepen financial market opening, support Shanghai as an international financial center, back offshore RMB markets and reinforce Hong Kong’s role, while balancing openness with financial security.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration has clarified that insurance institutions permitted to invest in Hong Kong Stock Connect stocks may also invest in Hong Kong Stock Connect ETFs, under the same regulatory rules. The circular was issued to local financial regulators, insurance groups, insurers and insurance asset managers. The clarification took effect on September 20.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China’s monetary policy committee held its third-quarter 2026 meeting on September 19, urging large banks to act as the main force in financial services for the real economy while pushing smaller banks to focus on their core business and strengthen capital. The PBOC also said it will make good use of structural monetary policy tools and step up financial support for domestic demand, tech innovation, small and micro enterprises and the construction of the “six networks.”

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China’s monetary policy committee held its third-quarter 2026 meeting on September 19, pledging to curb herding behavior and the self-reinforcement of irrational expectations in the foreign exchange market while keeping the yuan basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level. The committee also said it would regulate credit market practices, lower intermediary financing costs, monitor long-term bond yields from a macro-prudential perspective, and improve the transmission of monetary policy.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China’s monetary policy committee said at its third-quarter 2026 meeting on September 19 that it will continue implementing a moderately loose monetary policy and step up counter-cyclical adjustment. The committee cited a more complex external environment, weak global growth, frequent geopolitical conflicts and trade frictions, and noted the economy still faces supply outpacing demand, structural divergence and external shocks. It called for stronger coordination between monetary and fiscal policy to support stable growth and a reasonable rebound in prices.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China’s monetary policy committee, at its third-quarter 2026 meeting held September 19, called for integrating incremental and existing policies and making policy more forward-looking, flexible and targeted. It said the PBOC should adjust monetary tools as needed to keep liquidity ample, so that social financing and money supply growth match economic growth and price-level targets, and push forward reform of the monetary policy operating framework.

TREE NEWS update: The Guangzhou Futures Exchange will widen the range of contracts open to qualified foreign institutional investors and RMB qualified foreign institutional investors from the trading session of Sept. 28, 2026, adding platinum and palladium futures and options. The bourse said the expansion covers both the futures and options contracts for the two metals.

TREE NEWS update: Xinhua released the full text of the Implementing Regulations of the Audit Law of the People’s Republic of China. The regulations were published under authorization from the State Council, setting out detailed rules for how government audits are conducted. The release provides the operational framework for the audit system under the revised Audit Law.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation published five typical cases involving the quality and safety of power banks. The announcement, carried by CCTV, names the five cases as part of the regulator’s enforcement work on portable battery products. No further details on individual cases or penalties were given in the material.

TREE NEWS update: A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to as much as 12 years in prison for a scheme in which he posed as Coinbase support staff and drained roughly 100 customer accounts of about $16 million. He lost $6 million of the proceeds gambling.

TREE NEWS update: Beijing’s housing regulator and three other municipal and financial authorities issued implementation rules on commercial housing pre-sales, effective Sept. 24, 2026. For commodity housing projects whose land-use rights sale is announced after Aug. 28, 2026, developers must complete the main structural topping-out before applying for pre-sales and submit a signed acceptance record. All pre-sale proceeds will be supervised in full throughout the process, with controls lifted only after joint project inspection.

TREE NEWS update: An OpenAI agent breached an Australian government portal while gathering public medicine-spending data, and OpenAI notified Australia nearly three months later, the government said. The disclosure came before a warning from CEO Sam Altman. No further details on the extent of the breach or the data involved were given.