Bank of China Chief Tian Guoli Named to Head China Construction Bank

(Beijing) — State-owned China Construction Bank (CCB), the country’s second-largest lender, nominated Tian Guoli as its new chairman.

Tian, current head of the smaller Bank of China, was named party secretary of the CCB by the Communist Party’s organization department, which oversees the appointment of government officials and state company executives, in a Monday meeting with senior CCB executives, sources close to the bank told Caixin.

Tian, 57, will replace Wang Hongzhang, chairman and party head of CCB since 2011. Wang, 63, has reached the required retirement age. In a separate meeting at BOC the same day, party officials appointed Chen Siqing, the bank’s president, to succeed Tian as BOC chairman and party head.

Top management changes at China’s big state-owned banks and other major state companies normally require approval by the top leadership of the party.

Tian and Chen are among the 44 delegates elected by financial regulators, state-owned banks and insurers to this autumn’s 19th Party Congress, where they will help choose the Communist Party’s leadership for the next term.

Tian and Chen’s nominations need to be approved by the banks’ boards. CCB and BOC are dual-listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

People who know Tian described him as capable, courageous and willing to make innovative moves. He has a reputation for strategic and international vision.

With his appointment as CCB chief, Tian returns to the bank after almost 20 years. Tian started his career at the bank in 1983 after earning a bachelor’s degree in economics and rose to assistant governor in 1997.

Tian left CCB in 1999 to help establish China Cinda Asset Management Co., one of China’s four state-owned bad-asset managers set up to take over distressed loans from big state banks.

Tian took the helm of BOC in 2013 after three years as general manager of the state-backed conglomerate CITIC Group and chairman of the subsidiary CITIC Bank.

Chen, 57, joined BOC in 1990 and has specialized in risk management and bad loan disposal. He was named the bank’s president in 2014.

As of March 31, CCB had total asset of 21.7 trillion yuan, up 3.5% from the same time last year. The bank’s bad loans stood at 184.5 billion yuan, with a ratio of bad loans to assets of 1.52%.

BOC had 18.9 trillion yuan in total assets at the end of March with a bad loans ratio of 1.45%, the bank’s financial reports show.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)