China’s securities regulator has moved to close a long-running chapter of compliance failures at Tianfeng Securities, the Shenzhen-listed broker that this week received an administrative penalty notice, regulatory measures and an investigation notice from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
The firm says the violations date to the period when it was privately controlled and that since the case opened it has cooperated fully with regulators, recovered misappropriated funds and carried out sweeping internal reforms. Under the supervision of new state-controlling shareholder Hubei Hongtai Group, Tianfeng has sought to redraw the boundary between past problems and the company’s current operations.
Management and the new owner describe the CSRC action less as fresh trouble than as the formal conclusion of legacy risks. Tianfeng highlights specific governance changes: institutionalising party-committee involvement in pre-decision research, defining a formal “three major and one large” ("三重一大") decision list for significant matters, and building a compliance-review mechanism that covers all business lines.
Those steps are part of a wider remediation effort that Tianfeng says included reclaiming funds that had been improperly used and a systematic overhaul of internal controls. The timing matters: since Hubei Hongtai took control in 2023 the broker has been pursuing parallel tracks of legacy risk clean-up and reconstruction of core capabilities, while also restoring profitability after a capital injection in 2025.
The company points to business results to argue the penalty won’t impede its future. In the past three years Tianfeng says it helped channel roughly RMB 930 billion of financing to the real economy, including over RMB 120 billion into Hubei firms, completed a RMB 4 billion share issuance in 2025 and returned to profit with an expected attributable net income of RMB 125–185 million for the year.
The wider industry context helps explain why this episode is significant. China’s securities ecosystem has moved into a phase of stricter supervision and standardisation; regulators have been pushing brokerages to settle historical compliance problems, strengthen internal controls and accept more intrusive external oversight. For smaller and mid-sized brokers in particular, resolving legacy matters is a precondition for regaining market trust and pursuing organic growth.
For investors and counterparties the outcome is double-edged. Closing the file should reduce overhang from past misconduct and make Tianfeng a more credible partner. Yet the episode is also a reminder that regulators continue to probe past conduct, and that the formalisation of party committees and “three major and one large” procedures signals deeper political and compliance integration that will alter how decisions are made inside mid-sized brokers.
Absent from public notices are specific details on the scale of fines or exact corrective measures, leaving some uncertainty about the financial hit and ongoing supervisory constraints. Still, market commentary reflected in the company’s communications suggests the sector views the enforcement as predictable and ultimately constructive: a regulatory ending that enables a fresh start rather than the discovery of new systemic problems.