China Merchants Bank’s president and chief executive replaced following one of the worst single-day trading sessions for the bank’s shares.
China Merchants Bank’s president and CEO Tian Huiyu will be relieved from his current role with immediate effect, according to a statement, with chief financial officer Wang Liang stepping in as interim CEO.
Tian, 56, has been working for China Merchants Bank for over two decades after he first joined in 1995. He will remain with the bank and be assigned to another as yet unspecified post.
One-Day Stock Rout
The change at the top follows a drop in China Merchants Bank's share price that caused $11 billion of market value to be erased yesterday – the worst one-day trading session since a 9.4 percent plunge in August 2015.
Additionally, there are rumors that Tian is being investigated after a report by the Chinese financial news portal «Hexun.com» saying that an unnamed senior executive was helping local authorities with an unspecified investigation. Separately, the state-owned newspaper «China Securities Journal» said that authorities were looking into the reason for the stock’s price drop.
Shenzhen-headquartered China Merchants Bank is the third-largest lender in the country by market capitalization, ranking just behind state banking giants ICBC and China Construction Bank.
