The board of directors of China Everbright Bank Company Limited (ASX: 601818) is temporarily short one non-executive director.
Yao Wei, aged 51, has submitted his resignation to the board, stepping down from his positions as a non-executive director and as a member of the audit committee and the social responsibility and consumer rights protection committee. His original term was set to expire in November 2028, meaning he is departing more than two years early.
A 51-Year-Old "Finance Veteran" with CGN Roots
Yao Wei, born in 1975 and now 51 years old, holds a bachelor's degree in economics and is a certified public accountant. He has served as a non-executive director of China Everbright Bank since February 2021, a tenure exceeding five years. His primary role is not at the bank; he currently serves as a member of the Party Standing Committee and chief accountant of Overseas Chinese Town Group, a veteran finance professional who emerged from the nuclear power finance system.
Looking at his career, Yao Wei's professional life has been almost entirely tied to the name CGN — from his early days in the asset division and accounting division of the finance department at Daya Bay Nuclear Power Operations and Management Company, to serving as head of the comprehensive finance division at Guangdong Nuclear Power Group's finance department, then as chief accountant of CGN Wind Power and non-executive director and chief accountant of CGN Meiya Power, and eventually as deputy general manager (presiding over work), general manager of China General Nuclear Power Group's finance department, and general manager of its finance and asset management department. He also concurrently served as chairman of CGN International and director of Konka Group. With more than two decades of immersion in the finance field, Yao Wei has cultivated the typical character of a "central state-owned enterprise chief accountant."
Yao Wei's board seat at China Everbright Bank is that of an "equity director" dispatched by a shareholder. Overseas Chinese Town Group directly holds 7.11% of China Everbright Bank's shares and is one of the major shareholders that dispatches directors to the bank. His departure this time is due to "work adjustments" and represents a personnel arrangement by the dispatching party, not affecting China Everbright Bank's management team. As is customary, Overseas Chinese Town will nominate another director to replace Yao Wei.
As a non-executive director, Yao Wei does not receive remuneration from China Everbright Bank; his compensation is separately determined by the dispatching entity. This is consistent with Chairman Wu Lijun and President Hao Cheng, neither of whom drew a salary from the bank in 2025. Among disclosed executives, Board Secretary and Chief Business Officer Zhang Xuyang tops the list at approximately 1.59 million yuan, followed by Vice President Qi Ye at approximately 1.55 million yuan, Yang Bingbing at approximately 1.54 million yuan, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Liu Yan at approximately 1.52 million yuan, and Chief Risk Officer Ma Bo at approximately 1 million yuan.
In contrast to the slight counter-trend increase in executive compensation, China Everbright Bank's total employee cost in 2025 was 20.1 billion yuan, down 9.7% from the previous year, with a total workforce of 48,483 employees, averaging approximately 415,000 yuan per person, a decrease of more than 10% from the prior year.
Controlled by Central Huijin, Still Clearing Equity Structure After "Double Decline" in Performance
In terms of equity structure, Everbright Group directly holds 44.25% of China Everbright Bank, making it the controlling shareholder; Everbright Group's controlling shareholder is Central Huijin (holding 63.16%), which was initiated and established by the Ministry of Finance. China Everbright Bank thus falls under the category of a state-owned joint-stock bank ultimately controlled by Central Huijin. In addition to Overseas Chinese Town, CITIC Financial Asset Management holds 9.02% and also dispatches directors to the bank, forming the main shareholder bloc.
On the performance front, China Everbright Bank is undergoing a clear round of decline and clearing. In 2025, the bank achieved revenue of 126.3 billion yuan (down 6.7% year-on-year) and net profit attributable to shareholders of 38.83 billion yuan (down 6.9% year-on-year), making it one of the few listed joint-stock banks with a "double decline" in both revenue and net profit, with a net interest margin of 1.40% ranking at the bottom among comparable peers. In the first half of 2026, it completed revenue of 63.1 billion yuan (down 4.3% year-on-year) and net profit attributable to shareholders of 18.71 billion yuan (down 24% year-on-year), with the decline further widening; behind this is a proactive increase in credit impairment provisions to 20.9 billion yuan (up 31% year-on-year), with the non-performing loan ratio rising to 1.44% and the provision coverage ratio falling to 150%, overall in a phase of "cleaning house" and accelerating the clearance of existing risks.
The comings and goings of a shareholder-appointed director are hardly unusual; but when the dispatching party itself is undergoing transformation while the bank to which he was dispatched is deeply caught in the double squeeze of "trading below book value plus risk clearance," what signal does this "work adjustment" actually convey?
As of the close on September 25, China Everbright Bank's A-shares were quoted at 3 yuan, with a total market capitalization of approximately 177.3 billion yuan, a price-to-book ratio of only 0.35 times, a dividend yield of 5.83%, and a decline of 9.5% year-to-date; the share price has long been lying on the floor, and what it awaits may be more than just a rotation of a board seat.
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