Beijing, June 25 (Reporter Feng Fang) Recently, the State Administration of Radio and Television and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism jointly issued the "Code of Conduct for Network Anchors" (hereinafter referred to as the "Code of Conduct"), which puts forward requirements for the qualification of anchors in the fields of finance and finance. Experts pointed out that anchors in professional fields cannot be deficiently regulated, and financial "big V" and self-media without professional qualifications should be the key regulatory objects. However, the practice qualification proposed in the Code of Conduct does not specify the name of the specific industry qualification, which needs to be further clarified by relevant supporting measures.
(Figure from CFP)
The new regulations require anchors in multiple professional fields to obtain professional qualifications
According to the website of the State Administration of Radio and Television, the Code of Conduct applies to anchors who provide online performances and audio-visual program services through the Internet, including not only live broadcasters on network platforms, but also those who interact with users in real time and appear in the form of uploading audio and video programs.
Article 13 of the Code of Conduct puts forward a number of requirements in strengthening the professional ethics of network anchors, standardizing professional behavior, strengthening social responsibility, and establishing a good image, of which Article 13 stipulates: "For live broadcast content that requires a high professional level (such as medical and health, finance and finance, law, education), the anchor shall obtain the corresponding professional qualifications, and report the professional qualifications to the live broadcast platform, and the live broadcast platform shall conduct qualification review and filing for the anchor." ”
Dong Dengxin, director of the Institute of Financial Securities of Wuhan University of Science and Technology and a core member of the China Pension Finance 50 Forum, told the Central Broadcasting Network reporter that at present, each live broadcast platform will conduct some qualification review when registering anchors, and generally there are filing requirements for the qualifications of anchors, but there is still a lack of unified standards for the live broadcast threshold in the professional field.
The reporter noted that at present, some platforms have corresponding requirements for anchors in the financial and financial fields, such as the norms for live broadcasting of Bilibili anchors, which prohibit live trading and recommend the purchase of stocks, funds, bonds, spot, futures, foreign exchange and other financial investment products. The WeChat video account operation specifications also make it clear that it is forbidden to carry out relevant investment consulting activities such as stock recommendation and financial product recommendation (including but not limited to securities, futures, funds, etc.) without the permission of relevant departments, or to induce or divert users for promotion and marketing on the grounds of sharing financial information (such as stock market analysis/industry analysis), investment skills, etc.
Dong Dengxin said: "The requirements for the professional qualifications of anchors in the financial and financial fields in the Code of Conduct are a new formulation, which provides an official basis for each platform to further set the unified standard of live broadcast thresholds and determine the qualifications of live broadcasting. ”
Financial live broadcast chaos occurs from time to time
In recent years, with the development of online live broadcasting and short videos, many financial institutions, financial scholars, and self-media have increased the corresponding forms of content dissemination. On major live broadcast platforms or financial websites, in addition to securities companies and fund companies, there are also many financial "big V" and self-media that do not have industry qualifications to publish policy interpretations and market analysis through live broadcasts, videos and other forms. In this context, live broadcast chaos in the financial and financial fields occurs from time to time.
As early as October 2020, the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued a risk reminder saying that there was a situation of chaotic subjects in financial live marketing, and some unqualified entities carried out live marketing of financial products without authorization, suspected of illegal or over-range financial marketing publicity activities, or hiding fraud risks. The CSRC has also pointed out that in recent years, the number of "illegal stock recommendation" through traditional media such as television, radio, newspapers and periodicals has decreased significantly, but the use of online live broadcasting platforms to "illegally recommend stocks" has increased.
At the beginning of this year, the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau mentioned in the first issue of the 2022 Securities and Futures Institution Supervision Newsletter that some securities companies cooperated with the so-called Internet "big V" to carry out online live broadcasting, customer diversion and other activities, which aroused widespread media attention and reports, and the CSRC has clarified the corresponding regulatory requirements. The Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau requires that it is forbidden to recommend stocks in the form of live broadcasting, and the staff of securities companies should maintain an objective and professional attitude through online live broadcasting, mainly focusing on macro levels such as economic situation analysis, market change comments, and economic data interpretation.
In November 2021, the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau notified that it had ordered Beijing Zhongfang Xinfu Investment Management Consulting Co., Ltd. to make corrections because some employees of the company had long carried out online business live broadcasting in a third-party network live broadcast room in the name of the company, and the company had not carried out compliance management for this. In December 2020, the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau released a list of a number of institutions that do not have the qualifications to operate securities and futures business, and 6 financial self-media "big V" are listed, of which the "leek chief helmsman" is a financial self-media "big V" who recommends stocks and analyzes the market through live broadcast and video.
"We often see that in some professional fields such as finance and finance, the anchor itself is not qualified or professional, and the live broadcast content has obvious violations or errors, which conflicts with the current legal norms or policies." Dong Dengxin mentioned, "The chaos of live broadcasting in the professional field confuses the public and is easy to mislead, and it really needs to be properly rectified." There should be fair and transparent standards and procedures for setting live broadcast access thresholds and issuing live broadcast qualifications. ”
The industry has different views on the recognition of professional qualifications
The Code of Conduct jointly issued by the two departments puts forward requirements for the acquisition, filing, review and filing of anchors' professional qualifications. However, since there is only a general formulation and there are no specific rules, the industry has also had different views on the qualifications of the practice.
A fund company person told reporters: "I think the practice qualification refers to the qualification of the practitioner, the starting point of the Code of Conduct should be to ensure the professionalism and accuracy of the transmission of information, the requirements of the qualification can solve this problem to a large extent." Some people in the industry believe that the practice qualification may be similar to the qualification of the live broadcast certificate, otherwise some financial "big V" and self-media without professional qualifications may not be able to broadcast live.
Dong Dengxin tends to believe that the practice qualification proposed in the Code of Conduct is a kind of live broadcast certificate issued by the platform, rather than "one size fits all" to stop the live broadcast of the financial "big V" and self-media. He said that the live broadcast certificate can be paperless, but it must be strictly controlled by the platform according to the official qualification regulations.
"Some anchors with professional backgrounds and work backgrounds, the relevant certificates should be easy to obtain, and they can be directly identified through the certificate." For some anchors who have no experience in the industry, such as grassroots stock critics, they can determine whether they have live broadcast qualifications by reviewing their actual combat data. Dong Dengxin said, "At the same time, it is also necessary to suspend and suspend live broadcasts with violations through the supervision of the platform." ”
As for what impact the Code of Conduct will have on the live broadcast in the financial and financial fields, some insiders speculate that the live broadcast of investment advisory carried out by securities companies on their own Apps may not be within the scope of restrictions, and some insiders believe that the Code of Conduct has little impact on the live broadcast of securities companies and funds, but is good for the "regular army".
A brokerage source revealed to reporters that their company will conduct live broadcasts of investor education and other content on third-party platforms, and the company will conduct internal compliance supervision on live broadcasts, and the content of each live broadcast will be reported in advance.
A person from a leading public fund company told reporters: "The impact of the new regulations on fund companies and other institutions should be small, and the impact should be more financial KOLs and self-media." The public offering itself is an industry with a relatively perfect regulatory system and relatively high transparency, on the one hand, the company has compliance requirements, on the other hand, there is media supervision, and everyone is quite cautious. Moreover, after the accumulation and trial and error of live broadcasting in the past two years, the current live broadcast of public funds is relatively standardized and orderly as a whole. ”
Dong Dengxin pointed out that anchors in the professional field cannot be unregulated, because they are related to the vital interests of consumers and investors. And the financial "big V" and self-media anchors who do not have professional qualifications are or key regulatory objects.