By Nona Pelletier of RNZ
New Zealand’s largest online brokerage firm, Tiger Brokers, has been fined more than $100 million (US$60m) by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), as part of a broader crackdown on illegal cross-border securities activities.
Tiger’s recent first-quarter report for the 2026 year indicated it had made provision to pay the fine, the largest-ever levied against a New Zealand business, resulting in an underlying first-quarter loss of US$26.9m.
Hong Kong-based brokerage firms Longbridge Financial and Futu Securities International, trading as Moomoo in New Zealand, were also fined with Tiger Brokers, which was established in New Zealand more than 10 years ago.
Tiger, part of a group of companies owned by Nasdaq-listed Up Fintech, had worked to comply with China’s legislation introduced May 27, and had already suspended investors in China from opening accounts or adding new positions from June 12.
Tiger and other online brokers Longbridge and Futu were told by the regulators to wind down such accounts to stop the outflow of capital from China, which was restricted to US$50,000 a year since 2016.
It was unclear what long-term impact this would have on Tiger’s New Zealand businesses, which generated about $30 billion a year in transactions.
Tiger Brokers generated more than half of those transactions, mostly on behalf of clients in China, while related business Tiger Fintech focused on clients based in New Zealand.
- RNZ
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