Top-tier brokerages reshuffle, small and medium brokerages break through

This article is reproduced from: China Securities Journal

The fund’s sub-account commission ranking list is released:

Top-tier brokers reshuffle the pack; mid- and small-tier brokers break through

In 2025, against the dual backdrop of further deepening of public fund fee reforms and the rebound in market trading, the sub-accounting commission arrangement among brokerages has entered a new round of intense reshuffling. According to Wind data, the total sub-accounting commission income for the securities industry in 2025 was RMB 11.014 billion, basically the same as in 2024, ending the downward trend seen in the preceding period. However, under a pattern in which total amounts stabilize, top-tier brokers have repositioned themselves again due to mergers and acquisitions and strategic adjustments, while a number of mid- and small-tier brokers are becoming the focus of the market at astonishing growth rates by leveraging differentiated strategies.

According to people in the industry, with commission rates falling, investment research is increasingly returning to its underlying value purpose, which also calls for higher standards for brokers’ comprehensive service capabilities. Top-tier brokers are expected to strengthen market discourse power through research brand building, while mid-sized and smaller brokers are expected to achieve differentiated development by leveraging their research expertise.

● Reporter: Liu Yingjie, Lin Qian

A contest of “gold content” in the top-tier camp

In the top-tier echelon where the strong keep getting stronger, the ranking competition for brokers’ sub-accounting commissions in 2025 is not only about swaps in position, but also a deep contest over growth quality and core advantages.

CITIC Securities still sits firmly at the top, leading the entire industry with RMB 2,391.231 billion in sub-accounting stock trading value and RMB 814 million in sub-accounting commissions. However, it is worth noting that its year-on-year increase in sub-accounting commission of 2.05% is relatively moderate within the top-tier camp. By contrast, Huatai Securities has shown strong catch-up momentum: its sub-accounting stock trading value increased by 66.28% year on year; sub-accounting commissions increased by 19.38% year on year to RMB 546 million, narrowing the gap with Yangtze Securities, which ranks fourth in sub-accounting commissions, to just RMB 12 million. Behind this increment may be closely related to its continued investment in serving institutional clients and digital platforms.

The most notable structural change in this year’s ranking list comes from Guotai Junan Securities and Haitong Securities after a strong union. With the merger of Guotai Junan Securities and Haitong Securities, the new entity makes its debut for the first time, ranking second in the industry with RMB 2,082.337 billion in sub-accounting stock trading value and RMB 668 million in sub-accounting commissions. Its year-on-year increase in sub-accounting commissions is as high as 48.54%. However, when estimating commission rates, its level of 0.32% decreased compared with 2024, showing a trend that the post-merger estimated commission rate is passively converging toward lower-price levels. In contrast, GF Securities ranks third in sub-accounting commissions; but its estimated commission rate of 0.36% remains relatively high among the top-tier camp, to a certain extent reflecting its pricing power in research services among buy-side institutions.

Shenwan Hongyuan Securities has a well-established, long-time brokerage research institute in the industry, and its research business has always maintained strong competitive strength. In 2025, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities’ sub-accounting stock trading value grew 89.53% year on year; sub-accounting commissions were RMB 409 million, and its industry ranking for sub-accounting commissions rose to eighth. Sub-accounting commissions increased 36.69% year on year, with its growth rate among the top-tier brokers among the leading positions. In 2025, Shenwan Hongyuan Research Institute actively leveraged shareholder advantages to break through against the tide amid market volatility and industry changes; its core indicators continued to improve. It also promoted a digital upgrade of services through the “Yiwan Qiyuan” integrated platform for institutional client services, continuously enhancing its capability to generate revenue from transformed business.

It is worth noting that there is a significant divergence between the growth in sub-accounting stock trading value and the growth in sub-accounting commissions. In 2025, the sub-accounting trading value for the securities industry as a whole increased 47% year on year, but the total commission amount grew only slightly. Industry insiders believe that, against the backdrop of commission rates broadly declining, simply relying on growth in trading volume is no longer able to drive revenue improvement. Comprehensive service capability and the efficiency of unit output are becoming the new focus of competition.

Mid- and small-tier brokers begin a battle of models

If the competition among top-tier brokers is a game of scale and efficiency, then the breakthrough by mid- and small-tier brokers is a test of path selection and strategic resolve. Based on full-year 2025 data, some brokers managed to break the固化 pattern of “top-tier always staying strong,” but their growth models differ, showing distinct differentiated characteristics.

Huayuan Securities is one of the biggest dark horses in 2025. Its sub-accounting commissions rose from RMB 0.17 billion in 2024 to RMB 1.44 billion, up 764.9% year on year; its ranking jumped from the bottom end to 28th. Judging from Huayuan Securities’ performance, it has charted a path of “track focus + technology enablement.” Since the Huayuan Securities Research Institute was established in 2023, it did not immediately expand dramatically. Instead, it concentrated limited resources on vertical fields such as new quality productive forces and green low-carbon, building a moat through penetrating industrial research. Wind data shows that its estimated commission rate in 2025 remained at 0.44%, clearly higher than the industry average.

Huafu Securities, meanwhile, demonstrates a path of “high-end talent + precise sales.” Its sub-accounting commissions grew 186.46% year on year, and its ranking jumped to 22nd. Huafu Securities rapidly increases its market influence by bringing in star analysts, and at the same time builds six research centers around “new quality productive forces,” turning talent advantages into a sustained capability for in-depth services. Its estimated commission rate of 0.43% is also higher than the industry mean.

It is worth noting that a group of long-established research institutions are also showing new vitality in this round of reshuffling. JInjin Securities, by pushing forward its research-sales 3.0 reform, saw sub-accounting commissions increase 37.23% year on year to RMB 290 million. Its ranking rose steadily from 21st to 16th. Unlike “dark horse” brokers, Jinjin Securities’ breakthrough more reflects optimization of existing resources. By reforming internal mechanisms and improving research conversion efficiency, it captures market share in a stock market environment. Although Jinjin Securities’ estimated commission rate of 0.40% is slightly lower than Huayuan Securities and Huafu Securities, it still remains among the top tier among long-established brokers.

In addition, East Money Securities’ sub-accounting commissions increased 67.15% year on year in 2025, breaking through the RMB 100 million mark for the first time.

Investment research returns to the underlying value

Starting from July 2024, the “Regulations on the Management of Security Trading Fees for Publicly Offered Securities Investment Funds” officially began to be implemented, restructuring the commission mechanism for transactions and having far-reaching impacts on the competitive landscape for sell-side research and business deployment, among other aspects. In the view of industry insiders, this has further promoted investment research to return to its underlying value purpose. Only when research services directly meet the needs of clients’ investment decision-making can value truly be transformed.

Multiple brokerages stated that the company will shift from traditional sell-side research to integrated research and service transformation, enhancing the core position of its research business in business synergies, client services, and corporate strategy. At the same time, it will focus on digital empowerment and differentiated competition.

“ The company will continue to cultivate and do well the core work of research, enriching the breadth and depth of its research, and make every effort to bring research back to its roots.” Shenwan Hongyuan Research Institute said that it will coordinate the company’s overall resources through the institutional business committee, actively collaborate with the institutional business lines to provide clients with a one-stop integrated financial service of “research + business,” promote cross-business transformation of research value, and precisely serve clients’ investment decisions with multi-dimensional research and practical services to support the real economy.

Deepening domestic and international integrated development is an important feature of CITIC Securities’ research business. CITIC Securities stated in its 2025 annual report that it will further optimize the global research service network, achieve full coordination of resource allocation, service standards, and business processes across its domestic and overseas operations, expand the coverage radius of global client services, consolidate and enhance its share in global markets. At the same time, it will continue to build global brand communication IP, strengthening the construction of the global output of research viewpoints and its discourse power.

Based on the “One Institute, One Institute” research system of research institutes, policy and industrial research institutes, Guotai Junan Haitong Securities said that in the future, the company’s research business will continue to hone the professional capabilities of sell-side research and high-end think tank research; it will strengthen the breadth and depth of research coverage; and build world-class securities research brands with international influence and domestic pricing power, as well as high-end think tank platforms with industry-leading influence. It will continuously enhance its industry influence in key research areas.