Yesterday, the National Financial Regulatory Administration's Dalian Bureau disclosed a penalty notice, revealing that multiple individuals at the Dalian branch of Industrial Bank Co., Ltd. have been held accountable for issues related to credit business.
The disclosure indicates a systematic accountability process involving both branch management and frontline loan officers.
Specifically, Gao Liang, then General Manager of the Credit Review Department at Industrial Bank's Dalian branch, received a warning from regulators for imprudent issuance and management of merger and acquisition loans, inadequate credit management for low-risk business, and poor management of individual business loans.
Bai Guijun, who served as the head of both the Dalian Xinghai sub-branch and the Dalian Xi'an Road sub-branch, was warned and fined 50,000 yuan for inadequate credit management of low-risk business and poor management of individual business loans.
More severe penalties were imposed on frontline credit personnel.
Wang Jun, Liu Ning, Wu Yue, and Zhang Lin, all former client managers at the Dalian branch, were each banned from working in the banking industry for three years due to inadequate management of loan business.
This means the penalties involved a total of six individuals, with four being effectively expelled from the banking sector for three years.
Public information shows that Industrial Bank was established in August 1988 as one of China's first joint-stock commercial banks, headquartered in Fuzhou, Fujian province, and listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in February 2007.
The penalized Dalian branch was established in August 2007 and is located in Dalian, Liaoning province.
According to Industrial Bank's 2025 interim report, as of the end of June 2025, the bank operated 45 primary-level branches.
Among these, the Dalian branch oversees 21 sub-branches, employs 522 staff, and manages assets totaling 63.053 billion yuan.
Within Industrial Bank's system, this scale is not particularly large. The Dalian branch's assets exceeding 60 billion yuan rank it second smallest among the 45 primary branches, only larger than the Ningde branch, which operates 13 sub-branches.
Business registration information indicates that the Dalian Xinghai sub-branch and Dalian Xi'an Road sub-branch were established in January 2013 and November 2009, respectively.
According to Tianyancha, in June 2019, the person in charge of the Dalian Xinghai sub-branch was changed to Bai Guijun.
In October 2022, Bai Guijun stepped down as head of the Dalian Xinghai sub-branch and subsequently resumed the role of head at the Dalian Xi'an Road sub-branch.
Currently, Bai Guijun is still listed as the legal representative of the Dalian Xi'an Road sub-branch.
In fact, the penalty disclosed on February 2 was not the first sanction against the Dalian branch this year.
On January 9, the Dalian regulatory bureau had already published an administrative penalty notice targeting Industrial Bank's Dalian branch and its sub-branches.
That notice revealed that the Dalian branch was fined 800,000 yuan for inadequate loan business management and insufficient employee conduct oversight.
Furthermore, regulators identified multiple violations by the Dalian branch and its sub-branches, primarily including: "inadequate management of inclusive small and micro-enterprise loans, poor post-loan management of working capital loans, imprudent payment management, insufficient management of real estate development loans, failure to尽职 manage project loans, imprudent issuance and management of merger and acquisition loans, inadequate credit management for low-risk business, and poor management of individual business loans and individual mortgage loans."
Based on these issues, regulators fined the Dalian branch 2.6 million yuan, and imposed fines of 500,000 yuan and 800,000 yuan on the Dalian Xinghai sub-branch and Dalian Xi'an Road sub-branch, respectively.
In total, the round of penalties on January 9 resulted in fines totaling 4.7 million yuan for the Dalian branch and its sub-branches.
On the same day, the National Financial Regulatory Administration's Shaanxi Bureau also disclosed an administrative penalty against Industrial Bank's Xi'an branch.
Due to insufficient employee conduct management, the Xi'an branch was fined 380,000 yuan.
Its employee, Zhang Qian, was banned from the industry for two years for improperly recommending investment products to clients and engaging in irregular fund transactions with a client.
Combining the fines for both primary branches (including their sub-branches) on January 9, the total amount reached 5.08 million yuan.
From an industry perspective, frequent bank penalties have become the norm.
Data from Enterprise Early Warning shows that in 2025, the People's Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and their local offices issued a total of 6,521 penalty notices to banks and their personnel, with total fines reaching 2.641 billion yuan, a significant year-on-year increase.
Against this backdrop, Industrial Bank's situation appears less prominent.
Statistics indicate that in 2025, Industrial Bank received 113 penalty notices throughout the year, with total fines amounting to 42.0482 million yuan. Among joint-stock banks, its number of penalties ranked fourth, following China Everbright Bank.
On December 5, 2025, the National Financial Regulatory Administration disclosed a substantial penalty.
The public notice showed that Industrial Bank and related responsible personnel were fined 7.2 million yuan for violations including inadequate management of outsourcing institutions and inaccurate enterprise classification, while responsible person Zhang Hao was warned and fined 60,000 yuan.
Parallel to regulatory pressure is the trajectory of Industrial Bank's recent performance.
Financial data shows that since its listing in 2007, Industrial Bank maintained long-term growth in both revenue and profit.
In 2022, the bank reached its performance peak, achieving revenue of 222.374 billion yuan and a net profit attributable to shareholders of 91.377 billion yuan.
However, in 2023, both revenue and profit declined, with revenue reaching 210.831 billion yuan (down 5.19% year-on-year) and net profit attributable to shareholders of 77.116 billion yuan (down 15.61% year-on-year).
The bank explained in its annual report that this was "mainly affected by the one-time recognition of revenue from legacy wealth management products in 2022, which raised the base period figure."
In 2024, Industrial Bank's performance stabilized somewhat, achieving revenue of 212.226 billion yuan (up 0.66% year-on-year) and net profit attributable to shareholders of 77.205 billion yuan (up 0.12% year-on-year).
On January 21, Industrial Bank released its key unaudited financial data for 2025.
The announcement showed preliminary calculations of revenue at 212.741 billion yuan (up 0.24% year-on-year) and net profit attributable to shareholders of 77.469 billion yuan (up 0.34% year-on-year).
As of the end of 2025, Industrial Bank's total assets stood at 11.09 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.57% from the end of the previous year. Its non-performing loan ratio was 1.08%, up 0.01 percentage points from the same period last year.
While its performance has stabilized, the hundreds of penalty notices serve as a reminder that beyond scale expansion, compliance and internal controls remain an unavoidable baseline for the bank.
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