"Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission: Regulatory action will be taken if fake accounts participate in IPOs"

According to media reports, recently, there have been fake accounts known as the "Monkey Army" that have been taking advantage of loopholes in overseas securities firms. These accounts are opened through overseas securities firms with licenses in countries like New Zealand or Vietnam, which have relatively lax approval processes for opening fake accounts. The Monkey Army is actively participating in the Hong Kong IPO market, and it is estimated that the number of related securities accounts has increased to around 200,000. It is reported that the process for opening an account with the Monkey Army does not require facial recognition authentication, only the provision of identity information is needed to complete the process. Additionally, they can use bank cards not under their own name to access funds, describing it as "like the Monkey Army using the hairs of Sun Wukong to create many accounts with just a blow." The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission responded by stating that they do not comment on individual incidents or market rumors, but emphasized that they will actively monitor the market and take appropriate regulatory actions if any violations are found. The IPO settlement platform "FINI," launched by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited in 2023, has stipulated that all subscribing parties must provide investor identification information. Furthermore, the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong pointed out that licensed intermediaries handling overseas referral orders must take reasonable steps to ensure that the customer identification information submitted to FINI is accurate. They further require licensed intermediaries to conduct additional due diligence measures on overseas brokerage firms, including understanding the types of "underlying clients" of these firms, as well as the expected nature and scale of their transactions. In addition, they must evaluate the AML and CFT monitoring measures of overseas brokerage firms.