Who will ultimately take the helm at China Merchants Bank? In the development history of China's joint-stock banks, each leadership transition at CM BANK has never been merely an internal personnel change for a single bank. Instead, it has consistently been a landmark event that captures the attention of the entire Chinese financial sector and capital markets.
The foundation of CM BANK's identity as the "King of Retail" was laid during the era of Ma Weihua. Under Tian Huiyu's tenure, the bank embarked on strategic exploration of comprehensive wealth management. Following sudden leadership turmoil in 2022, Wang Liang was appointed to steer the bank through a critical period. The leadership changes at this joint-stock bank leader, with total assets exceeding 13 trillion yuan, reflect the cyclical transformations within China's banking industry.
Recent personnel announcements indicate that Wang Xiaoqing, former vice president of CM BANK, is set to replace the retiring Wang Liang as the Party Committee Secretary of CM BANK. He is expected to formally assume the role of president after completing relevant regulatory procedures.
The retail banking DNA of CM BANK took shape during the 14-year leadership of its second president, Ma Weihua. Appointed in 1999 after transferring from the central bank system, Ma Weihua served until May 2013 when he stepped down due to age. Recognized as "China's most innovative banker," he transformed CM BANK from a regional bank based in Shenzhen into a domestic benchmark for retail banking. Iconic innovations like the "All-in-One Card," "All-in-One Net," and "Sunflower Wealth Management" fundamentally reshaped the service logic and competitive landscape of China's banking industry.
Tian Huiyu, who had a background at China Construction Bank, succeeded Ma Weihua. During his nine-year tenure, CM BANK's asset scale surged from 4 trillion yuan in 2013 to 9.25 trillion yuan by 2021, with net profit attributable to the parent shareholder doubling. The bank also launched its "Retail Finance 3.0" strategy. By the end of 2021, CM BANK's retail Assets Under Management exceeded 10.76 trillion yuan, its market capitalization stabilized above the trillion-yuan mark, and it secured the top position among domestic joint-stock banks.
This smooth succession was abruptly disrupted in April 2022. On the evening of April 18, CM BANK issued a sudden announcement approving the removal of Tian Huiyu from his positions as president and director, citing reassignment. By April 22, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission announced that Tian Huiyu was under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. This unexpected leadership crisis caused CM BANK's stock price to plummet over 7% the following day, wiping out more than 80 billion yuan in market capitalization in a single day. Market confidence fluctuated sharply, plunging the retail banking leader into its most significant governance crisis since its establishment.
Merely a month later, the appointment of CM BANK's fourth president was finalized. On May 19, 2022, the bank's board of directors unanimously approved a proposal to appoint Wang Liang, then serving as executive vice president, as the President of China Merchants Bank. In June 2022, the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission formally approved Wang Liang's qualification for the presidency, marking the start of his official tenure.
Wang Liang is a veteran of CM BANK through and through. He joined the bank's Beijing branch in June 1995, starting from grassroots positions and progressively serving as assistant president, vice president, and president of the Beijing branch. He was promoted to vice president of the head office in March 2015, later taking on key roles such as chief financial officer, board secretary, and executive vice president. By the time he assumed the presidency, he had already dedicated 27 years to CM BANK, experiencing the entire process of its retail transformation and earning recognition as an expert in risk control and finance.
In the market context of that time, the appointment of this internal veteran's primary significance was "stability." CM BANK was then facing not only team instability due to the leadership change but also the triple impact of recurring pandemic disruptions, the unwinding of real estate risks, and a sluggish capital market. The market's foremost concern was whether CM BANK's strategy would shift and if its core retail business would waver.
Upon taking office, Wang Liang explicitly committed to maintaining strategic execution without deviation or动摇, continuing the core focus on comprehensive wealth management. Centered on "strict management and upright innovation," he aimed to stabilize the bank's operational fundamentals and market confidence.
Wang Liang's tenure as president, from his formal appointment in June 2022 until he turns 60 in December 2025, coincides with an unprecedented downturn cycle in the Chinese banking industry. This period is characterized by persistently low interest rates, continuously narrowing net interest margins, insufficient effective credit demand, and ongoing real estate risk exposure, alongside intensifying industry competition. Wang Liang himself acknowledged at results briefings that low interest rates have become the most significant "gray rhino" for the banking industry's development, directly testing banks' survival and growth capabilities.
In terms of core performance, even against the backdrop of industry-wide pressure, CM BANK's leading position remains unshaken. By the end of 2025, the bank's total assets reached 13.07 trillion yuan, a nearly 29% increase from 10.14 trillion yuan at the end of 2022, successively surpassing the 11, 12, and 13 trillion yuan milestones. In 2025, net profit attributable to the parent shareholder was 1501.81 billion yuan, showing steady growth from 1380.12 billion yuan in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 2.86% over the three years from 2022 to 2025. This profit scale not only leads significantly among other joint-stock banks but even surpasses that of two of the large state-owned banks, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China.
On the revenue front, however, CM BANK faced industry-wide challenges. Operating revenue was 3447.83 billion yuan in 2022 and 3375.32 billion yuan in 2025, indicating a slight decline over the three-year period. Revenue in 2025 saw only a marginal 0.01% year-on-year increase compared to 2024, essentially remaining flat. This seemingly subdued revenue performance precisely reflects the trade-offs made during Wang Liang's tenure. Confronted with the overarching trend of narrowing interest margins, CM BANK eschewed the common industry practice of "compensating for price with volume" through scale competition. Instead of blindly expanding high-risk credit to boost size, the bank focused on optimizing its structure and increasing the proportion of non-interest income, using its capital-light wealth management business to offset the impact of shrinking interest margins.
The implementation of this approach is evident in the continued consolidation of its retail foundation. During Wang Liang's tenure, the number of CM BANK's retail customers grew from 184 million at the end of 2022 to over 200 million by 2024, reaching 211 million by the end of 2025. Retail AUM surpassed 17.23 trillion yuan by the end of 2025, with a record annual increase of 2.06 trillion yuan. In 2025, revenue from comprehensive wealth management reached 44.005 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.89%, reversing the declining trend seen from 2022 to 2024. Specifically, sales of agency non-monetary public funds grew 18.13% year-on-year, agency trust product sales surged 155.65%, and agency insurance premiums increased 25.96%. By the end of 2025, the proportion of non-interest net income reached 36.06%, significantly higher than the 22.53% average for domestic commercial banks disclosed by the regulatory authority, demonstrating that wealth management has become a core pillar for navigating economic cycles.
Naturally, Wang Liang's tenure was not without its regrets and challenges. As a leading joint-stock bank, CM BANK could not entirely escape industry-wide difficulties. The net interest margin continuously declined from 2.40% in 2022 to 1.87% in 2025. Although it maintained a relative advantage compared to peers, profitability from traditional deposit and loan businesses was consistently squeezed. Growth in retail loans continued to slow, with credit card and mortgage businesses facing headwinds due to macroeconomic conditions, leading to a rise in the non-performing loan ratio for retail business. Competition in the wealth management sector intensified dramatically, with peers like Ping An Bank and China CITIC Bank also heavily investing in retail and wealth management. While CM BANK's leading advantage persists, the pressure from industry competition remains constant.
Wang Xiaoqing's succession suggests that the core focus on comprehensive wealth management at this retail leader is poised to enter a phase of deep cultivation under leadership with extensive experience across the entire asset management and wealth management value chain. As a key executive during the implementation phase of CM BANK's major wealth management strategy, Wang Xiaoqing's professional background aligns closely with the bank's core development direction.
Wang Xiaoqing holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from Fudan University and is an economist. Before joining CM BANK, he had a long and deep career in China's major asset management industry. From March 2005 to March 2020, he worked at PICC Asset Management Company, holding key positions including Deputy General Manager of the Risk Management Department, General Manager of the Portfolio Management Department, Assistant President, Deputy Party Committee Secretary, Vice President, and Chairman of the Investment Committee. He experienced the full cycle of China's asset management industry, from rigid redemption practices through the implementation of new asset management regulations to standardized transformation. He possesses profound expertise and industry insight into product creation on the asset side, major asset allocation, and full-cycle risk management. He is a rare expert executive with experience spanning regulatory, securities, insurance asset management, fund, and banking sectors.
Wang Xiaoqing officially joined the CM BANK system in March 2020, initially serving at China Merchants Fund, where he held positions including Party Committee Secretary, General Manager, and Chairman. From October 2021, he served as Assistant President of China Merchants Bank Head Office, and in July 2023, following approval by the National Financial Regulatory Administration, he officially assumed the role of Vice President of China Merchants Bank. During his tenure, he also served concurrently as President of the Shenzhen Branch from February 2023 to October 2024, while overseeing the wealth management division and key asset management subsidiaries like China Merchants Fund, CMB Wing Lung Life Insurance, and CMB Wing Lung Asset Management. He was a core executor of the "Value Bank" strategy and the iterative upgrade of the comprehensive wealth management business during Wang Liang's presidency.
Currently, wealth management businesses in China's banking industry are generally stuck in a homogenized predicament centered on intense competition in distribution channels. Most banks remain at a superficial level of earning channel commissions, struggling to integrate the full value chain of "wealth management - asset management - investment banking." Wang Xiaoqing's rich experience on the asset side is expected to help CM BANK further break down barriers between the wealth and asset sides, strengthening its differentiated capabilities in customized product creation, full-cycle asset allocation, and serving global customer segments, thereby escaping the vicious cycle of price wars and channel competition among peers.
In the context of low interest rates being a long-term "gray rhino" for the industry, this capability may help CM BANK further increase the proportion of non-interest income, cushioning the impact of narrowing interest margins on profitability, and truly establishing wealth management as a second growth curve for cycle navigation.
However, Wang Xiaoqing must also address the core challenges left for CM BANK after Wang Liang's tenure: how to break through the revenue growth bottleneck amid a long-term trend of low interest rates, how to defend the moat of the retail business, how to fully implement the Value Bank strategy, and how to find new differentiated advantages in an industry facing homogenized competition.
From Ma Weihua to Tian Huiyu, then to Wang Liang, and now to the new leader Wang Xiaoqing, each leadership transition at CM BANK has marked the end of one era and the beginning of a new cycle in Chinese banking. For this 39-year-old joint-stock bank leader, its true core competitiveness has never resided solely in the individual capability of any single president. Instead, it lies in the strategic resilience to consistently adapt to the trends of the times, the capacity for continuous iteration, and its deeply ingrained market-oriented DNA. The task for the new leader is to sustain this competitiveness throughout the new cycle of low interest rates, effectively answering the industry-wide question of how the "King of Retail" can successfully navigate and transcend economic cycles.