China names Chen Siqing to head world's largest bank

SHANGHAI: China has named a new chief for Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest lender by assets, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Chen Siqing, chairman of Bank of China Ltd., was appointed as party secretary of Beijing-based ICBC at an internal meeting on Monday, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. 

Chen is replacing Yi Huiman, who became chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country’s top securities regulator, in January.

Chen is expected to also be named ICBC’s chairman, a position that has traditionally been held by the same person who has served as party secretary, according to the people. 

The bank had $4.1 trillion of total assets at the end of 2018.

The reshuffle adds to a string of management changes at China’s top financial institutions and regulators. Peng Chun, chairman of Bank of Communications Co. was appointed head of China’s $941 billion sovereign wealth fund earlier this month, while Liu Guiping, vice mayor of the southwestern city of Chongqing, was named president of China Construction Bank Corp. in March. 

China has yet to fill the chairmen positions at Bank of China and Bank of Communications, the nation’s fourth and fifth largest lenders.

The press office of ICBC wasn’t immediately available for comment.

ICBC reported a record profit of 297.7 billion yuan ($44 billion) last year after policy makers renewed their push to spur credit amid a deepening economic slowdown.

At rival Bank of China, which generated more revenue from overseas operations than any of its domestic peers, earnings grew at the fastest pace since 2014 to 180.1 billion yuan.

ICBC currently operates 426 outlets in overseas markets with $384 billion of assets, or close to 10 percent of the group’s total.

Running China’s top banks does not come with a lavish pay package. Yi, former chairman of ICBC, earned about $100,250 last year, a fraction of the salaries taken home by JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s former CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

 China capped compensation for most senior executives at its biggest banks and other state-owned enterprises in 2015 as part of efforts to combat inequality.

Chen, born in 1960, joined Bank of China in 1990 and became its chairman in 2017. - Bloomberg