China Merchants Bank Plunges 7.35% After Major Change of Senior Executives

China Merchants Bank (CMB) announced during a meeting on Monday afternoon that it had decided to remove Tian Huiyu from the post of president and director of the bank and make another appointment for the position.

Before the new president is to be determined, Wang Liang, the current Executive Vice President of the bank, will temporarily preside over the work of CMB.

According to local media outlet Cailian Press, Tian will serve as Deputy Director of Executive Committee of Financial Business Group of China Merchants Group, Vice Chairman of China Merchants Finance Holdings Co. Ltd.

China Merchants Bank’s share price plunged 7.35% on Monday, closing at 43.39 yuan ($6.82) per share. The sharp drop, a rarity for a bank stock, made this topic go viral on social media platform Weibo, triggering quite a bit of discussion.

Tian Huiyu has been the president of CMB for over 9 years. According to his resume, Tian is 56 years old, with a bachelor’s degree in infrastructure finance and credit from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University. Before joining CMB, he worked as Vice President of China Cinda Asset Management Co., Ltd. for five years, and then joined the Bank of Shanghai as the company’s vice president in 2003.

After leaving Bank of Shanghai, Tian went to work in China Construction Bank (CCB) and served as vice president of CCB branch in Shanghai. he was also the principal person in charge and the president of the CCB branch in Shenzhen. He has served as the retail business director of CCB and the principal person in charge and president of the CCB branch in Beijing since 2011. In 2013, he left CCB, where he worked for nearly 7 years and officially joined CMB as the president.

In March this year, CMB released its 2021 annual report showing that the bank garnered an operating income of 331.25 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.04%. Its net profit attributable to shareholders was 119.92 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.20%. Meanwhile, the bank’s non-performing loan ratio returned to below 1%.

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By the end of 2021, CMB had 173 million retail customers and the assets under management (AUM) of retail customers was 10,759.170 billion yuan, an increase of 20.33% over the end of last year. It was also a new high for the bank’s growth rate in over six years.