Recently, it was learned from within the industry that China Merchants Bank's credit card center has undergone a leadership change. Former General Manager of the CMB Credit Card Center, Liu Jialong, has transitioned to the role of advisor for the credit card center upon reaching retirement age. The individual set to succeed him as General Manager is Li Mingdong, the current General Manager of the bank's Head Office Wealth Platform Department, who assumed the position one week ago, pending regulatory approval for his qualifications. Within CMB's business empire, often referred to as the "King of Retail," the credit card business is undoubtedly one of its most prominent territories. Liu Jialong, who joined China Merchants Bank in 1996, served three separate terms as General Manager of the Credit Card Center, making him a veteran figure in the credit card industry. He profoundly witnessed the golden age of China's credit card industry's rapid expansion and also personally experienced the "winter" that followed the fading of industry红利. From 2009 to 2015, Liu Jialong served his first term as General Manager of the CMB Credit Card Center. Under his leadership, the center developed the industry's first mobile app, "Palm Life," accelerating the digital transformation of the credit card sector. From 2018 to 2020, Liu Jialong once again took the helm of CMB's credit card business. In 2024, following the departure of former General Manager Wang Bo to become President of CMB's Hangzhou Branch, Liu Jialong, who was then Chairman of the Credit Card Center, assumed the General Manager role for a third time until early 2026. Previously, he had also held positions such as Business Director of the Head Office and President of the Retail Finance Headquarters. In a 2024 interview with the magazine "Contemporary Financier," Liu Jialong emphasized "respecting cycles and anticipating turns." He mentioned that at a critical juncture of competition, instead of hastily "stepping on the gas," CMB's credit card business actually slowed down. The reason was that Liu and his team had "observed some anomalous data" as early as August 2018. Liu Jialong stated: "At that time, we anticipated a turning point ahead and therefore decelerated in advance. In the credit card industry, characterized by its focus on detail, small transactions, slow processes, and累 work, the most crucial aspect is to constantly guard against veering off track." It was precisely due to this accurate anticipation of an industry inflection point that in 2019, CMB's credit card business was the first to propose that China's credit card industry was告别 the over-decade-long period of scale expansion, transitioning from an incremental market to a stock market, with fundamental changes in growth patterns. The industry needed to prepare to告别 the golden era and welcome the arrival of the "second half," adjusting its business plans that same year by reducing card issuance and loan growth targets by one-third. In late 2025, during an interview with the Harvard Business Review, a comment from Liu Jialong was particularly noteworthy. "Many people feel that the current state of the credit card industry is much more difficult than in the past, but could it be that the past state was actually the特殊 state, and the current state is what will become the常态?" Liu Jialong mentioned. "This is a new era. In this process, we will continue to focus on three persistences and three breakthroughs." These involve persisting with a business model built on risk security, focusing on the two fundamentals of payment and small-amount credit, and strengthening the advantages of the "branch + direct sales" dual-track model. The breakthroughs include increasing customer acquisition share in key regions and协同 developing on-site retail business; breaking through in active management to clearly answer why customers should use CMB's credit card; and making breakthroughs in key scenarios, key products, and key asset categories. Now, Li Mingdong, who is set to take over as the "number one" leader of CMB's credit card business, has also深耕 the fields of retail finance and wealth management for many years. Public information shows that Li Mingdong previously served as Assistant President of CMB's Nanjing Branch, and Assistant President and Vice President of the Shenzhen Branch; he has also held the roles of General Manager of the Head Office Wealth Management Department, General Manager of the Head Office Risk Management Department, and General Manager of the Head Office Wealth Platform Department concurrently serving as General Manager of the Retail Customer Segment Department. Within other financial institutions in the CMB system, Li Mingdong has served as a Director of CMB Consumer Finance and a Director of CMB Financial Leasing, and currently holds directorships at CMB Cigna Asset Management and CMB Wealth Management.
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