The China Securities Regulatory Commission, together with the People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, has issued the Measures for the Administration of Online Marketing of Financial Products, setting cross-sector requirements for how financial products may be promoted online and how third-party internet platforms may support such marketing. The Measures apply to financial institutions marketing financial products online and to third-party internet platforms commissioned by financial institutions to provide online marketing services, while prohibiting other organisations or individuals from conducting (or disguising) online marketing of financial products. Marketing must stay within an institution’s licensed business scope and permitted geography, with regional restrictions requiring customer location identification and review; where a third-party platform provides a purchase “handoff”, it must redirect customers to the financial institution’s self-operated platform and provide prominent prompts with a forced reading time before customers enter purchase or service-use steps. Financial institutions must take responsibility for the legality and compliance of online marketing content through an internal review and approval mechanism, keep records, and ensure key information such as product type, rates and fees, and risk warnings matches the financial product contract and is displayed clearly; specified practices are banned, including misleading content, unverified data, implying principal protection or promised returns for asset management products or advisory services, and using inducement terms such as “low risk” or “high return”. Additional conduct rules include separate online display areas for different product types, limits on algorithmic recommendation models (including opt-out options and unsubscribe/opt-out for marketing messages and calls), pop-up ad close functionality, restrictions on default consent in bundled sales, and requirements that livestream/short-video marketing be conducted only via authorised institutional channels by qualified and authorised staff, with platform-side qualification checks and prompt takedown and reporting of non-compliant content. The framework also tightens outsourcing and platform conduct by requiring written cooperation agreements and pre-assessments, barring platforms from intervening in core sales processes (including contract signing, fund transfers and suitability assessments) or providing interactive consultation about products, and imposing customer-consent and security requirements where data is used. It restricts the use of finance-related terms in website, app and account names and in trademarks to entities with the relevant qualifications, and sets out supervisory roles across sector regulators and other authorities, with measures ranging from rectification and administrative penalties to referrals for suspected criminal conduct. The Measures enter into force on 30 September 2026, with certain entities (including private fund managers and licensed RMB/foreign currency exchange institutions) applying them by reference and local financial organisations overseen by local financial authorities on a corresponding basis.

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