But according to several other employees at brokerages and banks, existing workplace restrictions had already made installation technically impossible, even without formal notices specifically addressing OpenClaw.
“All of the company’s office systems are either procured or developed in-house,” said an employee surnamed Yang at the brokerage arm of a financial conglomerate. Only company devices can connect to the workplace network, and no external software – including WeChat – is allowed to be installed, Yang added.
Staff at mainland China’s top investment banks and Hong Kong lenders echoed this, saying access to office computers was tightly restricted while security controls blocked the installation of external software. This, they said, reflected the strict approach financial institutions took to information security and risk management.
“I haven’t received any notice on OpenClaw yet, but it is almost clear to everyone that we should not use foreign apps in our work,” said Liu Yufei, who works at a state-owned bank in southwestern Sichuan province.
An employee at a government agency in Shanghai, who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said installing external apps such as OpenClaw was impossible. Instead of the internet, he said, staff connect to a local-area network – a closed system of devices within a single physical location.