BEIJING—For as long as Chen Qinye could remember, Chinese couldn’t invest overseas without overcoming language barriers and a quagmire of rules. That changed for the 30-year-old bank employee in December, when he tested one of a new generation of smartphone apps aimed at connecting China’s small-time investors with U.S. markets. A three-minute registration process and a $500 overnight transfer later, he was a shareholder in U.S.-traded Chinese firms Yirendai Ltd. and Noah Holdings Ltd. ...
A new wave of smartphone apps are giving Chinese investors access to the US equity market. The share trading apps are transforming China’s financial markets by enabling the Chinese middle class, motivated by a depreciating local currency, to seek new profitable places to invest their cash. Previously, Chinese investors could not invest overseas without overcoming language barriers and a quagmire or rules, however, apps such as JimuStocks, Tiger Broker and Niuniu give investors easy access to US equity markets after a registration process that only takes a few minutes. According to Boston Consulting Group, a reservoir of personal investable assets from China is set to grow to ¥196tn ($31tn) by the end of 2020 is at stake.