Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission publicly solicited opinions on the "Draft Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Futures Companies" and its supporting implementation regulations. As a major revision of the core regulatory system in the futures industry, the draft for soliciting opinions focuses on five core directions: raising the entry threshold, focusing on main responsibilities and businesses, strengthening penetration supervision, consolidating main responsibilities, and improving punishment mechanisms. It comprehensively regulates the operation and management, business boundaries, and governance structure of futures companies. Industry insiders believe that this revision is a historic change in the regulatory framework of the futures industry, which will thoroughly reshape the industry's development ecology, promote the fundamental transformation of the industry from scale expansion to high-quality development, guide futures companies from the extensive development model of "small and comprehensive" to gradually move towards the specialized development path of "specialized and refined" or "large and strong", better play the role of the futures market, and serve the national strategy and the development needs of the real economy. The most significant change in the draft for soliciting opinions regarding the threshold for tiered capital constraints is the establishment of a dual tiered constraint mechanism for registered capital and net capital, reshaping the logic of industry access. It is explicitly stipulated that futures companies engaged in two or more types of trading businesses (collectively referred to as futures market making trading, derivative trading, and futures asset management business) shall have a registered capital of not less than RMB 1 billion; At the same time, further refine the hard constraint on net capital, and clarify that for the addition of basic business (including domestic futures brokerage and futures trading consulting business), the addition of one type of trading business, and the addition of two or more types of trading business, the net capital of the futures company should continue to be no less than RMB 200 million, RMB 500 million, and RMB 1 billion respectively in the past six months. Regarding this, Zhang Fan, Chief Risk Officer of Yide Futures, stated that this means that the registered capital and net capital of futures companies need to reach one billion yuan in order to carry out two or more trading businesses. By setting capital thresholds to distinguish between fully licensed comprehensive operating institutions and single business exclusive institutions, regulation can effectively guide futures companies to abandon disorderly expansion thinking and move towards a high-quality development path that matches both capital strength and risk control capabilities. In addition to setting clear requirements for the capital of futures companies themselves, the draft for soliciting opinions further tightens the capital conditions for the establishment of shareholders and subsidiaries. It is stipulated that the net assets of the major shareholders of the futures company shall not be less than 200 million yuan, and the net assets of the largest shareholder, controlling shareholder, and actual controller shall not be less than 1 billion yuan. In terms of establishing subsidiaries, setting up domestic subsidiaries requires futures companies to have a net capital of no less than RMB 500 million in the past six months, while setting up overseas subsidiaries requires a net capital of no less than RMB 1 billion in the past six months. This stepped capital constraint design has a clear industry guidance intention. Wang Jun, Deputy General Manager and Chief Expert of Green Dahua Futures, stated that the design of this tiered capital constraint mechanism has strong guidance and can effectively guide futures companies to clarify their business positioning based on their own capital strength, avoid blind expansion and homogeneous competition, achieve a healthy adaptation of capital and business development, and further accelerate the process of supporting the best and limiting the worst in the industry. In Zhang Fan's view, this "capital business" strong linkage mechanism, with a registered capital of one billion yuan as the dividing line, divides the development track between fully licensed institutions and small and medium-sized institutions, and will accelerate the differentiation of the industry from "small and comprehensive" to "specialized and refined" and "large and strong". In the future, the ability to supplement capital and continuously meet net capital standards will become the lifeline for the survival and development of futures companies, and the trend of industry mergers and acquisitions integration and head concentration will be further highlighted. The draft for soliciting opinions also focuses on "returning to the source and focusing on the main business", comprehensively reconstructing the business system of futures companies, clarifying business boundaries, and promoting the improvement and efficiency of the business system. In terms of business architecture adjustment, the draft for soliciting opinions has made several key optimizations. The futures market making and derivative trading businesses, which were originally operated by the risk management subsidiary and subject to industry association registration and access, will be transferred to the headquarters of the futures company for operation, and will be subject to licensing and administrative supervision. To ensure a smooth transition of policies, the supporting announcement clearly stipulates that the market making and derivative trading businesses already carried out by subsidiaries must be gradually cancelled within 18 months after the official implementation of this draft for soliciting opinions, to ensure the orderly progress of business adjustments. For the futures asset management business, the draft for soliciting opinions focuses on promoting the de channelization reform, guiding the asset management business to return to the professional advantages of derivatives by forcibly increasing the "futures content". It is stipulated that the net amount of funds raised by futures asset management plans established by futures companies shall not exceed five times the net amount of funds raised by the futures and derivative asset management plans established by them; At the same time, it is required that the futures asset management plan should be managed by the futures company as the manager, and the investment advisor shall not directly issue deterministic instructions containing specific trading elements such as quantity or price to the futures company. Regarding this, Zhang Fan stated that the above regulations, through scale constraints and responsibility definition, force institutions to actively compress channel business, return to the core positioning of derivative risk management, and fundamentally reverse the development trend of asset management channel business. The reshaping of subsidiary regulatory logic is also an important aspect of this business regulation. The draft for soliciting opinions establishes the core principle of not deviating from the main responsibility and main business of establishing subsidiaries, clarifying that domestic subsidiaries are not allowed to establish subsidiaries again, and overseas subsidiaries can only establish one level of subsidiary, in order to curb blind expansion of subsidiaries from a hierarchical perspective. In Zhang Fan's view, a series of regulatory measures such as unified management of licensed businesses, restricting the hierarchy of subsidiaries, strictly prohibiting deviation from the main business, and enhancing the "maturity content" of asset management business all point to the development direction of futures companies focusing on the core business of futures and derivatives. Through these measures, the regulatory authorities have resolutely curbed behaviors such as shifting from reality to virtuality, channeling operations, and cross arbitrage, guiding institutions to deepen their professional risk management capabilities. In the future, behaviors that deviate from the main business and blindly expand will continue to be constrained, and specialized, distinctive, and high-quality development will become the mainstream direction of industry development. The draft for soliciting opinions further strengthens regulatory efficiency by constructing a penetrating regulatory system, improving internal control mechanisms, and perfecting punishment mechanisms, creating a strict regulatory pattern throughout the entire chain of pre admission, in-process monitoring, and post punishment, further consolidating the main responsibility of futures companies, and consolidating the bottom line of industry risk prevention and control. In terms of shareholder supervision, the draft for soliciting opinions comprehensively upgrades regulatory requirements, focusing on strengthening the supervision of shareholders and actual controllers, establishing a negative list of shareholders and actual controllers, and a penetrating verification mechanism. Among them, five categories of situations that shareholders and actual controllers are not allowed to exist are clearly defined in the form of a negative list, including "having a large amount of outstanding debts due to maturity", "having a serious record of dishonesty in the past three years or being administratively or criminally punished for major illegal and irregular behavior", "irregular corporate governance, unclear equity structure, and inadequate internal control system", etc., to prevent unqualified entities from entering the industry from the source. In addition to source control, the improvement of internal control system is also the core guarantee for futures companies to prevent internal risks and achieve compliant operations. In terms of internal control system construction, the draft for soliciting opinions clearly requires futures companies to establish a fully covered and seamless compliance management, internal control and risk management system, and build a solid internal risk defense line. In Zhang Fan's view, equity structure, business essence, and risk essence have become the core of regulation. It is difficult to meet regulatory requirements solely through formal compliance. Futures companies must establish a transparent, substantive, and full process compliance management and risk prevention system in order to adapt to the new regulatory environment. From the perspective of the overall development of the industry, Wang Jun believes that this revision is a historic change in the regulatory framework of the futures industry, which will profoundly reshape the industry ecology: it can not only promote the formation of a differentiated competition pattern, promote the industry's business model to shift from licensed monopoly, capital intensive, and risk control priority, promote the industry's development from scale expansion to high-quality development, but also steadily improve the industry's level of opening up to the outside world and international pricing influence, while adhering to strict regulatory bottom lines, promoting futures companies to return to the origin of intermediary services, and better serve the development of the real economy. For futures companies, this revision is both a challenge and an opportunity. Zhang Fan further stated that this revision marks a new stage in the supervision of futures companies, with stricter capital constraints, clearer business boundaries, higher governance requirements, stronger compliance bottom lines, and stronger disciplinary measures. Futures companies should deeply grasp the policy orientation of "strict supervision, risk prevention, promotion of main business, strong capital, and heavy penetration", accelerate capital replenishment, optimize business structure, improve corporate governance, and strengthen compliance responsibilities, seize transformation opportunities in the process of rule reshaping, and achieve sustained, healthy, and high-quality development. (New Society)