China Construction Bank President Wang Zuji Set to Resign, Chongqing Vice-mayor Liu Guaping Tipped to Succeed

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The head of one of China’s big four state-owned banks is set to depart from his position, with a senior official from the central Chinese mega-city of Chongqing one of the leading candidates to replace him.

Sina reports that China Construction Bank is scheduled to convene a meeting on 20 March to announce the retirement of 61 year-old president Wang Zuji (王祖继), who is above the official retirement age in China.

CCB’s leadership team is currently comprised of chairman Tian Guoli (田国立), alongside Zhang Gengsheng (章更生), Huang Yi (黄毅), Zhang Lilin (张立林) and Liao Lin (廖林).

Wang Zuji is a veteran of the Chinese finance sector who has served in multiple roles including senior banking executive, financial regulator and local government official.

For around half of his more than four-decade career Wang has been involved with the Chinese banking sector, occupying multiple roles with state-owned policy lender China Development Bank during the period from January 1997 to February 2005, including vice-head of the north-eastern lending department, head of the Changchun branch, head of the business development department and head of the integrated planning department.

Wang served as a government official in the north-eastern province of Jilin during the period from 2005 to 2008, in the roles of assistant to the provincial governor, chair of the Jilin province state-owned assets supervisory and regulatory committee, and vice-governor.

From September 2012 to May 2015 Wang served as vice-chair of the now-defunct China Insurance Regulatory Commission, before joining CCB in July 2015 to serve successively as vice-chair, executive chair and president.

Domestic media speculates that Liu Guaping (刘桂平), the 53-year old vice-mayor of Chongqing, is one of the top candidates to replace him.

Liu originally hails from Hengshan in Hunan province, and is a 25 year-veteran of the Chinese rural banking sector.