Broker 818 Wealth Festival Cools in 2026, New-Client Yields Slip to 4%-6%

In August 2026, the promotional hype around the annual 818 Wealth Management Festival of securities firms was markedly weaker than in previous years. Over the past five years, the event typically drew 50 to 60 brokerages for a coordinated push, complete with large dedicated web pages. In 2026, however, only a handful of leading brokerages and some smaller firms ran low-key promotions through WeChat official-account posts, and large-scale traffic-driven marketing was significantly scaled back. Some brokerages had yet to clarify their internal plans for the event, while several had already withdrawn from the collective festival marketing for consecutive years, reflecting a broader decline in participation intent. Alongside the cooling of new-client marketing, the yields on wealth-management products used to attract new customers during the festival also dropped noticeably. In previous years, some brokerages offered pledged-repurchase agreements or certificate products with annualised returns as high as 8.18%. In 2026, however, most participating brokerages capped new-client product annualised yields at about 6%, with some lowering them to the 5% range, and the supply of highly subsidised products yielding 7% to 8% contracted sharply. Even the few institutions that still offered 8% products attached additional conditions, such as restricting availability to specific event dates or requiring participation in designated live-stream programmes. Specifically, Guotai Haitan Securities adjusted its promotional focus during the 2026 festival to wealth-management coupons with annualised returns of 4% and 5%, while the previous 8% high-yield coupon became available only randomly to those who visited the event homepage or watched a designated live stream on August 18. Galaxy Securities also cut the yields on its exclusive coupons for new customers, with the two tiers dropping from 6% and 8.18% in 2025 to 6% and 4%, while subscription limits and term clauses remained largely unchanged. For most brokerages, the agreed yields on new-client exclusive wealth-management products currently range from 4% to 6%. Meanwhile, account-opening cash rebates organised by third-party intermediaries persist. When combined with broker new-client wealth-management offers, total annualised returns can reach 7% to 12%, but such rebates usually require investors to fill in a designated financial-adviser employee number and are subject to deposit size and holding period requirements. Some brokerages also bundle other service conditions with their new-client benefits. For example, Sinolink Securities requires investors to also sign up for an AI free investment-advisory service with a 30-day trial period; after the trial ends, if not actively cancelled, the service fee is automatically deducted in proportion from trading commissions. Regulatory changes are directly affecting broker marketing practices. In April 2026, the People's Bank of China, together with the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and five other departments, issued the Measures for the Administration of Online Marketing of Financial Products, which will be fully implemented on September 30.