China will soon allow individual investors¹ to open no more than three accounts for Shanghai-listed shares following the detection of a growing number of fake registrations³ in recent months.

近几个月以来，随着有关部门查出越来越多的虚假注册账户，很快我国将最多允许个人投资者在沪市开设三个股票账户。

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is expected to announce the new rule recently, according to a source close to the securities watchdog.

据证监会知情人士称，证监会预计将在近日宣布这项新规。

Individuals who had more than three accounts prior⁴ to the new ruling will not be affected⁵, the source said.

该知情人士表示，新规发布前已拥有三个以上账户的个人将不会受到影响。

China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp Ltd (CSDC) -- a subsidiary of CSRC that settles all transactions in the A-share market -- lifted a 17-year-old ban in April last year, allowing individual investors to open up to 20 securities trading accounts simultaneously⁶ to trade in Shanghai-listed shares.

中国证监会旗下解决A股市场所有交易的子公司--中国证券登记结算有限公司--在去年四月解除了一项长达17年的禁令，允许个人投资者同时开放20个证券交易账户来交易上海上市的股票。

Previously⁷, an individual investor² was permitted to have one only account.

在此之前，一个单独的投资者仅被允许有一个唯一的帐户。

However, the securities regulator found recently that a number of new registrations are likely to be false after a few securities firms began heavy marketing⁸ activities to encourage investors to open securities accounts.

不过，证券监管机构最近发现，在几家证券公司开始大量营销活动，鼓励投资者开设证券账户之后，出现了大量新注册的虚假账户。

"Many correspondence addresses used for newly opened accounts in a securities firm were found to be the same," according to the source.

知情人士表示，近期某券商许多新开账户的通信地址被发现都是相同的。

CSDC data suggest that newly opened securities accounts on the Chinese mainland exceeded two million in August amid a lukewarm stock market performance during the month.

中国证券登记结算有限公司的数据显示，8月，中国大陆的新开证券账户数量超过200万个，但当月的股市表现却不温不火。