Webull collects the sort of information people usually keep to themselves: identification details, bank account information and records of their trading. A House committee is pressing the brokerage to explain how that information is protected when much of its technology operation sits in China.

The dispute escalated on October 20, when the House Select Committee on China challenged the company's response to an earlier investigation. Lawmakers questioned its assurances about overseas access to American customers' data and accused it of making false statements about its dealings with investigators.

The committee's latest statement follows its October 7 bipartisan report, led by Republican Chairman John Moolenaar and Democratic Ranking Member Ro Khanna. The investigation examined Webull's ownership, technology relationships, staffing and safeguards for customer information and assets.

Its central concern is who can reach the systems handling U.S. accounts. Webull says the data is stored in the United States. Investigators want a fuller account of the roles played by affiliates and personnel overseas.

The privacy notice and the China operation

The company's published notice says personal information "may be accessed by our affiliates in jurisdictions other than the United States." It lists information collected from customers including identity documents, financial details, account balances and trading activity.

Investigators also point to Hunan Weibu, the group's technology subsidiary in Changsha. Webull's 2025 annual report disclosed that the subsidiary employed 863 people at year-end, representing 62% of the group's workforce. The same filing identifies Changsha as its principal research and development center, with its principal operations center in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The committee says Webull's Singapore affiliate owns the platform American customers use and receives technology support from Hunan Weibu. It also cited the company's former FINRA-registered mainland China branch, which operated from January 2020 until April 2024 and provided customer service and some overnight technical support.

Khanna put the transparency concern this way when the investigation was released:

"Whether it's this trading app or other brokerage apps, custodians of Americans' financial data and savings should strive for transparency with the customers they serve."

The report also questioned a Webull affiliate's previous use of Tencent Cloud to host certain user data. Investigators said they had not received records explaining which data was hosted there, when that arrangement ended or whether related access continued.

The committee's concern also rests on Chinese intelligence laws that can require cooperation with state authorities. It argues that a brokerage's reliance on a China-based technology affiliate creates legal and operational risks for U.S. investors.

Webull says China employees cannot access the information

In an October 9 statement submitted to the SEC, Webull rejected the report's conclusions and said its China technology team and international corporate structure were already publicly disclosed.

"Access to sensitive U.S. customer information is controlled by supervisors located in the U.S., and employees in China have no access to it. Independent, U.S.-based auditors test these controls."

Webull said U.S. customer information sits on Amazon Web Services infrastructure in the continental United States. It said the report identified no instance of improper access, transfer or misuse, and that it had experienced no material cybersecurity incident involving customer data.

The company also said no customer assets had ever been held in China and that nobody there had authority or system access to direct customer funds. It supported the committee's proposed regulatory improvements while objecting to how investigators conducted their work.

Webull said the committee stopped engaging for roughly 20 months and gave it no opportunity to answer the findings before publication. The October 20 response countered that investigators had sent written questions, received 306 pages of documents and shared the report with Webull's lawyers before releasing it.

The committee's proposed changes include stricter protections for brokerage data, better access for U.S. regulators to inspect overseas operations and broader national-security reviews of foreign-controlled broker-dealers. These remain policy recommendations.

Meanwhile, Webull announced on October 20 that it plans to offer eligible U.S. customers crypto-linked perpetual futures starting in November. Those contracts would be listed on KalshiEX and cleared through Kalshi Klear, adding another product to a brokerage that says it now serves more than 29 million registered users globally.