BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) --
Ma Weihua has ended his decade-long
tenure as Communist Party of China
(CPC) chief of the China Merchants
Bank (CMB), the bank announced late
Wednesday.
Tian Huiyu, the head
of China Construction Bank's Beijing
subsidiary, will be appointed as the
new head of CMB, the country's
sixth-largest lender by market value,
the bank said.
Ma did
not wish to assume a major role
at the bank because of his age,
the bank said. His term as CMB
president will end in
June.
Ma started his job
as CMB president 14 years ago, when
the bank, with only 100 billion yuan
(16.13 billion U.S. dollars) in
assets, was reeling from the Asian
financial crisis. Ma won recognition
by managing reforms that optimized the
bank's structure and boosted
efficiency.
"Ma demonstrated strong
strategic thinking and a global
perspective. He pushed forward two
important reforms that made our bank
a leading business in China," said
a senior CMB executive who worked
closely with Ma for
years.
"He was the one
who built the bank's retailing,"
said the executive, who requested
anonymity. Retailing accounted for nearly 40
percent of CMB's profits last
year.
"The change will not
affect our evaluation of the bank,"
said Yu Minhua, a financial industry
analyst at Zhong De Securities, a
joint venture formed by Deutsche Bank
and Shanxi Securities.
"Tian
has a background in retailing. He
fits the job, as retailing is
his bank's main business. Senior
executives from China Construction Bank
tend to be steady leaders. Therefore,
CMB is unlikely to change much,"
Yu added.
Tian, who was
also responsible for retail business
at China Construction Bank, has been
lauded for the rich work experience
and asset management know-how he
acquired during his 10-year bank
management career, as well as the
five years he spent working at
China Cinda Asset Management
Co.
Tian has a master's
degree in public administration from
Columbia University.
CMB's
profits increased 25.31 percent from a
year earlier to reach 45.27 billion
yuan in 2012. Its first-quarter profits
stood at 13.02 billion yuan, ranking
first among the country's joint-stock
banks, CMB financial reports
showed.
The company is listed
on exchanges in Shanghai, Hong Kong
and the United States. Its shares
climbed 0.08 percent to close at 12.5
yuan per share on the Shanghai
bourse on Wednesday.
（Editor：MaXi、Gao
Yinan）
