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February 1, 2015

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China Minsheng chief resigns amid ‘rumors’

THE head of China Minsheng Bank has submitted his resignation “for personal reasons,” the lender said yesterday, amid rumors he is being investigated by disciplinary authorities.

Mao Xiaofeng filed a letter expressing his request to resign from his posts as director, president and other roles in the bank’s special committees, the company said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

“China Minsheng Bank has noticed media reports concerning President Mao Xiaofeng. As far as the bank knows, the matter is of a personal nature and is unrelated to bank operations,” the statement said.

Board Chairman Hong Qi will temporarily take Mao’s place as president, it said.

The response came shortly after rumors circulated on social media that Mao had been taken away by the Party’s disciplinary inspection commission to “assist with investigations.”

The rumors did not say when he was taken away.

A spokesperson for China Minsheng said: “The bank’s other directors, supervisors and senior executives are all at their posts ... and the operations of our bank are all normal.”

“Concerning the specifics of Mao, please refer to the bank’s announcement,” the person said.

Mao, 42, completed a master’s degree in public administration at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the United States and a PhD in administration at Hunan University in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province.

China Minsheng’s shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange closed down 1.7 percent on Friday at 9.47 yuan (US$1.52).

According to the People’s Daily, the Party’s flagship newspaper, the bank on Friday sent an internal notice to its branch employees and others, telling them to be ready to “respond to a possible emergency” over the weekend.

The internal notice was posted on the People’s Daily website.

A person close to the bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Minsheng’s board of directors was scheduled to meet yesterday for an “important matter.”

The meeting was later rescheduled for today, he said, though he declined to say why the date had been changed.

On Friday, business news outlet Caixin reported that Mao, head of China’s largest privately owned bank, was recently taken away by the Party’s internal watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Mao “has been asked to assist in the investigation of a high-ranking official,” Caixin said, adding that he had been dismissed from his post as Minsheng’s Party chief.

It is unclear to which official Mao’s reported detention could be linked.

Investigative magazine Caijing yesterday cited “rumors” that Mao might have been taken away due to his connections to the wife of Ling Jihua. Ling, the former deputy head of China’s top political advisory body, was put under police investigation last month for “serious violations of discipline,” following rumors he had attempted to cover up the lurid 2012 death of his son in a Ferrari crash.

His wife, Gu Liping, has also reportedly been taken away to assist in the probe.

President Xi Jinping has touted a crackdown on graft since assuming the Party’s top post in late 2012, targeting both high-level “tigers” and low-level “flies.”

Among the top officials ensnared is Zhou Yongkang, who prior to his retirement in 2012 was China’s former internal security chief and a member of the standing committee of the Party’s political bureau.




 

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