Regulator frowns on analysts’ underwear
Print Edition
CHINA’S securities regulator has ordered brokerages to restrain their staff’s online activity, according to inside sources yesterday, after some were judged to have used attractive women analysts to drum up business.
Brokerages are struggling to rekindle investor interest after a stock market crash in 2015, and some analysts have become cyber celebrities to attract customers.
“Stock analysis was a serious business and now it’s started to resemble the entertainment industry,” said Zhang Gang, an analyst at China Central Securities.
“They lower the professionalism of the business. It’s about time for at least some crackdown.”
In a note, the China Securities Regulatory Commission urged brokerages to regulate the use of social media to promote research reports, the sources said.
“It’s in response to an increasing number of analyst-turned Internet celebrities,” said an analyst at AJ Securities.
The CSRC also demanded tighter quality control in producing research reports, the sources said, after the headlines in one report were judged to be “vulgar.”
The CSRC did not respond to requests for comment.
Some brokerages are offering new clients sightseeing tours, host beauty contests, or hire svelte female analysts who appear to spend most of their time uploading pictures of themselves to their microblog accounts revealing their underwear.
Criticism intensified this month when a Founder Securities analyst broadcast her research report from home dressed in a kimono. The video was viewed at least 100,000 times.
Other celebrities include a female coal strategist at Haitong Securities who broadcasts insights online.
“These Internet star analysts have no shame, recommending people to go long on stocks,” wrote one irate investor. “They don’t care whether they are right or not, they just pander to the audience for fame.”
Founder and Haitong declined to comment.
“I would never film myself broadcasting my research,” said a female analyst at one of the top three brokerages, speaking on condition of anonymity. “I want to be judged on my research, not my face.”
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