Bank executives collectively "youngening"? Chengdu Bank's 38-year-old Vice President takes office, with a female regulator in place

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In March 2026, Chengdu Bank repeatedly unveiled major personnel appointments. On March 12, the Sichuan Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration officially approved Huang Jianjun’s qualifications to serve as director and chairman; a week later, on March 20, the board appointed Qi Jiaojiao and Zhou Zhichen as the company’s vice presidents.

This trillion-yuan-level city commercial bank is accelerating the generational transition of its management, using a “combination of experience + new talent, and business + risk control” to allocate roles for the next stage of high-quality development.

“Post-1975” Huang Jianjun takes the helm

In August 2025, Chengdu Bank’s former chairman, Wang Hui, resigned due to a reassignment of his organizational work, and Huang Jianjun was nominated as the chairman. Half a year later, the regulatory approval was finalized, and this “post-1975” financial veteran officially took charge of the trillion-yuan city commercial bank.

Huang Jianjun has deep ties with Chengdu Bank. According to publicly available resume information, born in November 1975, he began his early career at the grassroots level at Chengdu Commercial Bank (the predecessor of Chengdu Bank). He later served as director of the Secretariat Division, deputy director of the General Office, director of the Board Office, and general manager of the Corporate Business Department. After that, he served as president of the High-Tech Branch, secretary of the CPC committee and president of the Xi’an Branch. In 2016, he was promoted to vice president. In 2020, he was transferred to Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank as president; in 2022, he was promoted to chairman, taking charge of this trillion-yuan rural commercial bank.

This “return” is widely viewed as a key step in a “chairman switch” between Chengdu Bank and Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank. Wang Hui, former chairman of Chengdu Bank, was simultaneously reassigned to become the party secretary and chairman of Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank. Through this core executive swap, the two trillion-yuan local banking institutions in Chengdu exchanged top leadership.

Such cross-bank executive adjustments are not only an overall arrangement for coordinating local financial resource allocation, but also help both banks achieve business synergy and mutual learning based on the backdrop of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle development.

A golden pairing: 38-year-old youngest vice president + a regulator “woman veteran”

In sync with Huang Jianjun’s new role, Chengdu Bank hired two vice presidents at once, filling gaps in the management lineup.

Zhou Zhichen, born in March 1988, is 38 years old and holds a full-time master’s degree in International Money and Banking from the University of Birmingham in the UK. His resume covers core business areas in both joint-stock banks and rural commercial banks: previously, he served as assistant general manager in the Corporate Business Management Department of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s Chengdu Branch, and deputy general manager of the Investment Banking Department (in charge). Later, he joined Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank, where he served as general manager of the Investment Banking Department and general manager of the Corporate Finance Department (Green Finance Department).

This 38-year-old vice president nominee refreshes the record for the youngest vice president among A-share listed city commercial banks. His professional background focuses on business areas such as corporate finance, investment banking, and green finance. He is familiar with local Sichuan enterprises’ financing needs and the operating rules of capital markets.

Qi Jiaojiao, born in August 1979, is a full-time master’s degree holder in Finance from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Her career is rooted in the frontline of local financial regulation in Chengdu. She previously served as a deputy section head of the Securities and Insurance Division in the Chengdu Municipal Government Finance Office, director of the Local Financial Development Division of the Chengdu Municipal Financial Work Bureau, director of the Local Financial Regulation Division No. 2 of the Chengdu Municipal Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau, and most recently served as director of the Risk Prevention and Control Division of the Municipal Finance Office Party Affairs.

More than twenty years of regulatory experience have made her deeply familiar with local financial institution regulatory policies, compliance management requirements, and the logic of risk resolution. She is skilled at in-depth supervision and building internal control systems.

“Business new talent + a regulatory specialist”—this golden pairing precisely matches what Chengdu Bank needs for its current development: it needs to strengthen corporate business and investment banking innovation while also building a solid compliance and risk-control firewall.

“age gap” and “growth bottleneck”

This personnel adjustment also reflects Chengdu Bank’s core demand to optimize the age structure of its management team. Public information shows that among the bank’s original management team, two vice presidents are approaching retirement age. With the urgency to replenish the lineup by making the management younger and building a tiered structure, the approval of Zhou Zhichen and Qi Jiaojiao will allow the bank to form a more complete leadership team, significantly lowering the average age of management and constructing a tiered structure combining experienced, middle-aged, and young talent.

At a deeper level, the motivation lies in the operating challenges Chengdu Bank faces.

Looking at performance data, the bank’s revenue and net profit growth rates have slowed for several consecutive years. As a leading city commercial bank in the West, Chengdu Bank has clear advantages in corporate business—especially government-affairs finance and infrastructure credit—but this also means it is highly dependent on traditional interest income.

From the perspective of compliance management, in December 2025, Chengdu Bank was fined a total of RMB 7.25 million by its head office and 15 branches for violations including improper management of related loans, deposits, discounting, and bills business, setting the largest fine record for the bank in recent years. This fine exposed gaps in the bank’s compliance management, and its risk-control awareness needs to be improved.

Can younger executives bring a new outlook?

This personnel adjustment aligns with the development trend of listed city commercial banks becoming younger, more professional, and more diversified in management. In recent years, A-share city commercial banks have continued expanding their post-80s management teams. Ningbo Bank, Guiyang Bank, Suzhou Bank, and others have appointed post-80s vice presidents; younger forces are becoming an important support for driving bank transformation.

How can young executives quickly adapt to the management cadence of a trillion-yuan-level bank and convert frontline business experience into the group’s strategic decision-making capability? How can executives with regulatory backgrounds balance compliance oversight with business innovation to avoid overly strict risk control that constrains development momentum? How can the new and old leadership teams quickly align and form coordinated synergy? These will all test the abilities and wisdom of the newly appointed management team.

Personnel arrangement supported by solid performance

Behind the personnel changes is Chengdu Bank’s solid underlying fundamentals as a backstop.

According to a report by Everbright Securities, Chengdu Bank’s net interest margin in the third quarter of 2025 has continued to stabilize since the trend in the second quarter. The benefits from earlier rounds of deposit rate cuts will gradually be released, further alleviating pressure from net interest margin narrowing.

Precisely because the fundamentals are solid, this personnel adjustment is widely viewed as a strategic layout for the future—while maintaining asset quality and consolidating advantages in corporate business, it is also accelerating the cultivation of “second growth curves” such as retail, wealth management, and technology finance.

In an environment where net interest margins in the banking industry are narrowing, competition is intensifying, and regulation is tightening, whether Chengdu Bank can find a precise balance between stability and change—preserving its leading advantage in asset quality while opening up new growth engines in retail transformation and wealth management—will be the core issue facing the newly appointed management team.

With the two new vice presidents officially taking up their roles, Chengdu Bank will continue to lead on the path of high-quality development with a younger posture and more professional capabilities.