Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd. (601166) is preparing for a leadership change at its Beijing branch.
The bank's second-largest branch is set to welcome its sixth leader. In late March and early April this year, there were significant adjustments to the senior management at the bank's headquarters. Sun Xiongpeng, a Vice President, was newly appointed as the Secretary of the Party Committee at the headquarters, while Hao Chao, the head of the Beijing branch, was newly promoted to Vice President at the headquarters. In early May, Hao Chao's appointment as Vice President at the headquarters was officially approved. Subsequently, it was reported that Hao Chao would no longer concurrently serve as the head of the Beijing branch. The successor for the branch head position was determined around the same time, with Ye Xiangfeng, the current head of the Nanjing branch, slated to take up the role in Beijing.
Upon review, Ye Xiangfeng will become the sixth head of the Beijing branch. Established in 2000, the Beijing branch has grown under the leadership of five previous heads—Jiang Yunming, Chen Jinguang, Chen Xinjian, Zhang Ting, and Hao Chao—into a core first-tier branch with the bank's second-largest asset scale. Notably, all five individuals were promoted to positions such as Vice President at the headquarters or even higher roles after leading the Beijing branch.
Historically, the bank's first branch outside its home province was established in Shanghai, opening four years earlier than the Beijing branch. After thirty years of operation, the Shanghai branch's total assets reached 824.9 billion yuan by the end of 2025, while the Beijing branch's asset scale had grown to 798.928 billion yuan in the same year—narrowing the gap between them to just 30 billion yuan. In terms of size, the Shanghai branch has consistently matched or even led the Beijing branch over the years. However, when it comes to the likelihood of personnel promotion, the Beijing branch has clearly had an advantage.
Ye Xiangfeng is set to succeed Hao Chao as the head of the Beijing branch, marking his first new assignment in four years.
Information shows that Ye Xiangfeng has extensive experience within Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd., having served as the head of multiple branches. As early as 2012, he worked at the Quanzhou branch, serving as its head. In May 2014, his appointment as head of the Xiamen branch was approved. Two years later, around September 2016, he succeeded Ye Xiaodong as the head of the Chengdu branch.
In 2022, a career handover between Ye Xiangfeng and Hao Chao began. That year, Hao Chao was transferred to head the Beijing branch, and Ye Xiangfeng succeeded Hao Chao as the head of the Nanjing branch. Four years later, with Hao Chao's promotion to Vice President at the headquarters, Ye Xiangfeng is once again set to succeed him, this time as the next head of the Beijing branch.
The Beijing branch, which Ye Xiangfeng is about to lead, is the bank's second-largest branch. By the end of 2025, its asset scale stood at 798.928 billion yuan, only 17.604 billion yuan less than the bank's largest first-tier branch, the Shanghai branch.
In fact, over the past two years, the Beijing branch has shown rapid growth compared to the Shanghai branch. Back in 2023, the asset gap between the Beijing and Shanghai branches was over 100 billion yuan, specifically 112.405 billion yuan. By 2024, this gap had narrowed to 53.664 billion yuan, and now it is less than 20 billion yuan.
Concurrently with Ye Xiangfeng's new appointment, Li Xingbang, the head of the Zhengzhou branch, is slated to succeed him as the head of the Nanjing branch. It is reported that Li Xingbang also previously served as a Vice President at the Beijing branch and took over as head of the Zhengzhou branch in 2022, coinciding with the branch's 18th anniversary. Notably, as of the end of 2025, the Nanjing branch had 3,967 employees and 143 operational outlets, both figures ranking first among the bank's branches.
During Ye Xiangfeng's four-year tenure leading the Nanjing branch, its asset scale grew from 397.986 billion yuan at the end of 2022 to 447.519 billion yuan by the end of 2025, representing an increase of over 12%. However, although the overall trend was expansion, the branch's asset scale experienced fluctuations, with figures of 467.792 billion yuan at the end of 2023 and 455.612 billion yuan at the end of 2024, both higher than the level at the end of 2025.
It is noteworthy that all five heads of the Beijing branch since its establishment have been promoted to the bank's senior management at the headquarters.
The first to step into the spotlight was Jiang Yunming. In the late 1990s, after gaining experience in departments such as the headquarters office and securities issuance, he joined the Beijing branch. In January 2000, when the Beijing branch officially began operations, Jiang Yunming became its first head, also marking the bank's first leader in Beijing after expanding beyond Fujian. In November 2009, he was promoted to Party Committee Member and Vice President at the headquarters, joining the senior leadership team.
The baton was then passed to Chen Jinguang. This well-regarded executive in the industry, who long oversaw the retail business line and is not originally from Fujian, took over as the second head of the Beijing branch at the end of 2009. After nearly three years in that role, he was promoted to Party Committee Member at the bank in September 2012 and became Vice President at the headquarters early the following year.
Chen Xinjian, the bank's current President at the headquarters, served as the third head of the Beijing branch. Early in his career, he worked at the Fujian Provincial Department of Finance before joining Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd. in 2004. He held key positions at the Shanghai and Xiamen branches, similar to Hao Chao's career path, and later led both the Nanjing and Beijing branches. In 2014, Chen Xinjian was promoted from head of the Beijing branch to Party Committee Member and Vice President at the headquarters. He subsequently served as Secretary to the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and President at the headquarters.
In August 2022, Zhang Ting, the fourth head of the Beijing branch, was promoted to Vice President. His promotion occurred during a period of frequent changes in the bank's senior management, coinciding with the retirement of Vice President Chen Jinguang due to age and Chen Xinjian's move to Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Zhang Ting, along with Zhang Min, head of the Hangzhou branch, was added to the headquarters leadership team comprising one President and three Vice Presidents.
The fifth handover of the baton involved Hao Chao, who was recently promoted. Born in 1971, two years younger than Zhang Ting, Hao Chao is an executive who rose through the ranks from the bank's grassroots level. With extensive experience in branch operations, he served as head of the Changchun, Shijiazhuang, Nanjing, and Beijing branches. In March 2026, he was designated as Vice President of Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd. and is now passing the leadership of the Beijing branch to the sixth head, Ye Xiangfeng.
Interestingly, the Shanghai branch, established in 1996 as the bank's first branch outside its home region, has long held the top position in terms of asset scale among the bank's branches. However, in terms of the density of executives promoted to the headquarters, only its second head, Tu Baogui, was promoted to Vice President at the headquarters in 2012. For over a decade since, no branch head from Shanghai has been directly promoted to the senior management at the headquarters, forming a sharp contrast with the Beijing branch's pattern of "every head being promoted."
Looking ahead, it remains to be seen whether Ye Xiangfeng will follow this "Beijing branch tradition" and join the senior management at the headquarters in a few years, becoming the sixth head of the Beijing branch since its establishment to be promoted to the headquarters.
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