Last Friday, the Securities Regulatory Commission issued the “Regulations on the Administration of Securities Transaction Fees for Publicly Raised Securities Investment Funds” (“Regulations”), which were officially implemented on July 1. This marks the official implementation of the second phase of public offering rate reform. The core of this reform is to reduce the commission rate for stock trading in public funds and regulate the use of trading commissions. When the new regulations are implemented, the brokerage research institute will face the test. Some non-bank analysts said that the brokerage research institute, which has relatively high labor costs, may cut salaries and lay off employees. Overall, institutions generally believe that in the long run, this reform will push the brokers' research business to focus on improving depth and service quality, and that the concentration of the research industry will further increase in the future. Large brokerage firms are shifting to comprehensive business revenue, while small to medium brokerage firms are building “small but sophisticated” research institutes. It will drive a drastic reshuffle of the industry in the short term. (Securities Times)