The paper explores the changes of the American net capital rule and its defects for broker dealers in 2004, and the recent developments of the American net capital rule in 2013. With regard to China’s net capital rule, it is proposed that the quantity standard and the quality standard be enhanced, the mechanism of broker dealers opting out be improved, lender of last resort in securities industry be established, the limits in leverage ratios be clearly defined for systemically important broker dealers with the leverage ratio not too high and not too conservative, and the quantitative methods for net capital be perfected to reflect the relevance of net capital to risk