Wang Xiaoqing, the new president of CM BANK (ASX: 03968), is making waves with a fresh round of personnel changes across core departments, drawing significant attention given the bank's president-responsibility system.
In early September, the bank's top-tier Shenzhen branch saw a leadership change, with assistant president Wang Xinghai resigning for work-related reasons, and Dongguan branch head Zhan Jingping moving south to take over. By late September to early October, adjustments across multiple head office departments and several tier-one branches were successively announced. Within three months, the first round of personnel arrangements under the new president has gradually taken shape.
According to market sources, this round of adjustments covers head office departments including Human Resources and Financial Institutions, as well as tier-one branches in Tianjin, Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Xining. Among them, Tianjin branch head Pan Zurong is proposed to serve as general manager of the head office Human Resources Department. For any listed bank, the Human Resources Department is a critical back-office function, and several of CM Bank's previous HR heads have subsequently moved into senior management roles.
Recently, market sources indicated that Pan Zurong, who is about to head CM Bank's Human Resources Department, is a cadre developed internally within the bank with rich frontline experience. His public resume shows that he served as head of the Fuzhou Dongshui branch of China Merchants Bank starting in 2015, was approved by the Fujian Banking Regulatory Bureau in May 2016 to serve as assistant to the Fuzhou branch head, was promoted to deputy head of the Fuzhou branch four years later, and took charge of the Tianjin branch in April 2022, succeeding the current CM Bank vice president Wang Ying.
After taking over the Tianjin branch in 2022, he shifted the business focus toward technology finance and regional industry research, launching the "Sci-Tech Innovation with CM Bank" full-lifecycle service in 2023, establishing specialized mechanisms across six areas: team, products, policy, institutions, assessment, and processes. The full picture of this formation is precisely the "1+20+150" strategy disclosed by Wang Xiaoqing at the earnings conference: one technology finance committee, 20 key technology finance branches, and 150 dedicated technology finance sub-branches.
In the banking industry, the position of general manager of the head office Human Resources Department has always been an important one. For example, Zhang Xiaodong, current deputy party secretary of the Agricultural Development Bank of China, was promoted from general manager of ICBC's Human Resources Department to a centrally managed cadre; Liu Hong was internally promoted from Agricultural Bank of China's Human Resources Department to director of rural finance; and Li Min, vice president of China Construction Bank, also previously served as the bank's HR head before taking his current position. The same holds true for China Merchants Bank.
Ding Wei, who became general manager of the head office Human Resources Department in 2003, was previously an operating cadre who honed his skills at the Hangzhou and Nanchang branches, later rising to vice president of the head office before resigning in 2017 and subsequently being investigated.
Additionally, Li Kai, general manager of the head office Financial Institutions Department, is proposed to serve as Tianjin branch head, succeeding Pan Zurong who was transferred to the head office; Du Bing, deputy head of the Shenzhen branch, is proposed to serve as Dongguan branch head, with minor adjustments also made in Xining, Shijiazhuang, and the audit line.
It is evident that most of the cadres involved in this round of adjustments have extensive experience in industry and regional operations, which aligns with the business strategy Wang Xiaoqing outlined at the interim results briefing on August 31. He made it clear at the meeting that the bank needs to refine differentiated branch operations, build regional competitive advantages, and turn technology finance into a brand-new signature strength for CM Bank.
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