China cracks down on rule-bending offshore investments

Photograph: Getty Images

Jun 28th 2026|4 min read

SOUNDWILL PLAZA in Hong Kong used to host a restaurant dedicated to the Transformers film franchise. The burger buns were stamped with robot faces and the gift shop featured a towering model of Optimus Prime (a robot that can transform into a lorry) striding through a portal. Last year, however, fast food gave way to fast finance. The site was taken over by Futu Securities, a tech-savvy brokerage with over 3.5m clients. Futu boasts it can open a new account in as little as three minutes—about the time it takes to flip a burger.