Client Onboarding, Suitability, and Account Types
This domain tests how a client legally enters the market and how the firm proves the product fits. Expect items on real-name account opening, the account types and their thresholds, the ordinary-versus-professional investor divide, and the paperwork a firm must complete before selling something risky.
Account opening and account types
- Real-name (实名制) registration is mandatory; accounts cannot be lent or used on behalf of another person. One investor may hold at most three A-share accounts per market (SSE and SZSE counted separately).
- Margin (credit) accounts require roughly 500,000 yuan of assets plus six months of trading experience, and leverage is capped near 2x.
- Stock option accounts require about 500,000 yuan of assets, six months of experience, a knowledge test and a simulated-trading record.
- NEEQ and BSE accounts use asset thresholds (BSE around 500,000 yuan) plus two years of experience.
Suitability architecture
- The 2017 Suitability Measures impose know-your-client, know-your-product, matching, disclosure and record-keeping duties. Products are graded R1–R5 and ordinary investors C1–C5; a C3 client cannot simply be sold an R5 product.
- Professional investors include institutions with ≥20 million yuan net assets, ≥10 million yuan financial assets and two years of experience; and individuals with ≥5 million yuan financial assets or ≥500,000 yuan average annual income over three years, plus two years of investment or relevant work experience.
- When an ordinary investor insists on a product above their grade, the firm must give a special written risk warning, allow extra consideration time, and keep audio-video records (双录). Private fund subscriptions also carry a cooling-off period of at least 24 hours.
Worked example
A 62-year-old retiree with 800,000 yuan in savings, no investment history, and a C2 rating asks to buy a leveraged R5 fund. What must happen?
Reasoning: 800,000 yuan is far below the 5 million yuan professional threshold, so she stays an ordinary investor at C2. The firm cannot place the order silently. It must warn in writing that the product exceeds her grade, record the session, give her time to reconsider, and document her affirmative instruction. If suitability was never assessed, the firm has breached its matching duty regardless of whether the client lost money.
Traps that cost marks
- Assuming a signed risk disclosure waives the firm's suitability duty entirely.
- Mixing the professional-investor thresholds (5 million / 500,000) with the private-fund qualified-investor threshold (3 million / 500,000, minimum 1 million per fund).
- Forgetting the three-account cap or the prohibition on lending accounts.