Capital controls? No problem for Tencent-backed Futu, the overseas trading app for Chinese investors
Futu enables Chinese investors to trade overseas stocks using money they have already parked on bank accounts abroad
Chinese stocks officially sank into bear territory last month as domestic investors dumped their equities in the world’s worst-performing market and looked for opportunities overseas.
One innovative company is seizing the opportunity to help them invest in stock markets abroad. And it does not even have to worry about China’s notoriously tricky capital controls.
Futu Securities, which already runs mainland China’s biggest mobile stock-trading app, enables Chinese people to buy and sell Hong Kong and US-listed shares using the money they already have parked in overseas banks.
“People always talk about capital controls in China. But they tend to ignore the fact that after years of development and accumulation, the wealth owned by Chinese people overseas is already huge,” said Dennis Wu, CEO of Futu Securities during an interview on Wednesday in Hong Kong.
“We help mainlanders trade stocks offshore, as long as they have their bank accounts and capital offshore already,” he said.
