| As the outcome of the growth of the securities market, individual securities brokers not only play a key role in the development of foreign securities markets, but are also regarded as one of the important symbols of the maturity of the securities markets of developed countries. The development of China's securities market in the past more than one decade has given rise to a number of fairly established corporate securities brokers, i.e., securities companies. However, with the enhancement of market operation mechanisms and improvement of investors' investment ability, securities companies have to shift from the extensive brokering model of providing passage services to a more intense and advanced service models. As a result, individual securities brokers come to the fore. Under China's existing laws and regulations, the only form of securities brokers is securities companies. As China's securities market grows more and more mature and the opening up and reform program forges further ahead, individual securities brokers will be an important competitive power in China's securities market. Therefore, from the crucial perspective of alignment with international rules, it looks particularly important to consider the construction of China legal system of individual securities brokers.Currently, most Chinese scholars study individual securities brokers from economic perspective but less from legal perspective. Even more scarce are empirical researches that combine legal theories on the basis of market surveys. Moreover, China's securities regulators resort more to administrative measures rather than legal means to regulate individual securities brokers. Thus, it is very important to probe into the legal issues regarding individual securities brokers based on market surveys. This paper starts with a review of the backgrounds and significance of individual securities brokers, and after a discussion of the individual securities broker models adopted currently in a few typical cities and regions in China, it analyzes some legal concepts and legal implications related to individual securities brokers. Then, based on the author's comments on different theories on the issue, the paper respectively delves into the legal relationship between corporate securities brokers and investors and that between the individual securities brokers and brokerage houses, and summarizes the first relationship as brokerage relationship and the second as agency relationship. After that, the paper discusses the problems and potential risks that exist in China's individual securities broker models. Finally, the author proposes legislative suggestions on how to perfect China's system of individual securities brokers, i.e., when perfecting the system of individual securities brokers, it is necessary to take into account China's specific situations, give consideration to both the short-term and long-term development objectives, and regulate individual securities brokers at both macro and micro levels. At the macro level, the broker management system should be perfected through the legal status of individual securities brokers, the qualification and registration system of individual securities brokers, and the code of conduct and code of ethics for individual securities brokers, establishing the trade association of individual securities brokers, and increasing the self-regulatory level of the industry as a whole. At the micro level, the institutional building of individual securities brokers should be reinforced by supervising the compensation system, establishing the archives of good faith, implementing the risk guarantee fund system, and formulating the code of conduct, and by strengthening brokerage houses' responsibilities for management of individual securities brokers, and continuous training system for individual securities brokers. Undoubtedly, given the limitation of time and the author's knowledge level, the research and analysis in this paper has yet to be deepened and enriched in the futures. |
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