Chief executive of Bank of Overseas Chinese resigns

Day Li-nin (戴立寧), chairman and CEO of the Bank of Overseas Chinese (華僑銀行), resigned from his posts yesterday.

Day, 63, announced his resignation at yesterday morning's bank board meeting. He cited the lack of improvement in the bank's overdue loan ratio as the reason for his resignation. Although the board tried to convince him to stay, Day declined their offers and decided to leave. However, Day will remain one of the bank's managing directors.

Chang Chun (張鈞), another managing director of the bank and president of the credit guarantee fund (信保基金) under the Ministry of Finance, will replace Day.

Day took the post in January 1996, following a crisis at the bank stemming from a large number of bad loans. Day holds 2 percent of the bank's shares and is its largest individual stockholder.

The profitability of the bank has not improved since Day took over as chairman. The sluggish economy has added to the bank's troubles, and its overdue loan ratio has continued to rise. Day said he is resigning for health reasons, an commonly cited excuse.

Meanwhile, Day's resignation will not impact the bank's proposed investment in an asset management company with GE Capital Corp of the US, Chang said during a press conference at the over-the-counter TAISDAQ exchange yesterday.

The Bank of Overseas Chinese signed a memorandum of understanding in May with GE Capital to jointly establish an asset management company, with a capitalization of around NT$30 billion. At that time, Day said he expected the joint venture to help the bank clear out all of its non-performing debts and reduce the bank's overdue loan ratio to zero.