Bank of China, the country's second-biggest lender, named Huang Zhiwei to replace Zhou Lu as general manager of its Shang-hai branch after an internal review found Zhou should be held responsible for irregular loans to a local property firm.
"During an audit review of the Shanghai branch, the head office discovered that certain credit extensions made to the Wan Tai Group, granted during Zhou's tenure, involved irregularities, and Zhou should be held directly responsible," the Beijing-based bank said in a statement.
Zheng Ruoping, a spokeswoman for Bank of China's Shanghai branch, said Zhou declined to comment.
China's government is cracking down on property-related lending, which totaled US$22 billion at the end of April, after it was found some loans were illegally obtained and could worsen banks' asset quality.
About a quarter of the country's loans have gone bad.
Wan Tai, a Shanghai-based real-estate developer under investigation by Chinese authorities, doubled its assets between 1995 and 2001 by borrowing money and setting up affiliates engaged in trading, metals, advertising and education although it has reported no income for six straight years, the China Securities Journal reported earlier, citing government documents.
Qian Yongwei, the owner of Wan Tai, is being questioned about more than 1.3 billion yuan (US$157 million) of loans Wan Tai drew from Bank of China's Shanghai branch, the Hong Kong media reported last month.
The government is probing another Shanghai property tycoon, Zhou Zhengyi (
Liu Jinbao (
Liu, 50, has been cleared of any major wrongdoing in his dealings with Zhou and the disappearance of millions of US dollars at Bank of China's Shanghai branch after preliminary investigations, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday, without identifying sources.
Bank of China declined to comment.
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STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has