Bank of Communications financial report mix-up, Secretary's situation draws attention

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（Source: Rule of Law Business Environment）

Listed banks, long known for being rigorous with data, have once again made a blunder in their financial reports.

On March 31, Bank of Communications issued a corrigendum announcement, showing that an error occurred in its disclosed profit distribution announcement. It mistakenly wrote the profit distribution figure for “per 10 shares” as “per share,” which expanded the dividend amount by 10 times.

Earlier, Hangzhou Bank’s 2023 annual report also had a similar mistake. As a result, three months later, its vice president and board secretary, Mao Xiahong, resigned.

The person responsible for information disclosure is the board secretary. So, after all, the current board secretary of Bank of Communications, He Zhaobin, has also raised netizens’ concerns about his “job security.” Will He Zhaobin resign for “work adjustment” reasons, just like Mao Xiahong?

A financial report blunder appears

On March 31, Bank of Communications urgently issued a corrigendum announcement to revise its “Announcement on Bank of Communications Co., Ltd.’s 2025 Profit Distribution Scheme,” which had been disclosed on March 27.

Before the correction, the announcement showed that Bank of Communications’ full-year cash dividend to be distributed per share for 2025 was 3.247 yuan (inclusive of tax); after the correction, the scheme was revised to distribute a cash dividend of 3.247 yuan (inclusive of tax) per 10 shares.

One-character difference led to a dramatically different dividend amount. Based on Bank of Communications’ total share capital of 88.36B shares, the erroneous wording corresponds to a total dividend amount of approximately 286.92B yuan, while the correct figure is only about 28.69B yuan—an even larger difference of as much as 258.2 billion yuan.

Bank of Communications said plainly that the error was due to “insufficient rigor in proofreading.” It sincerely apologized for the inconvenience caused to investors and promised to strengthen the preparation and review of information disclosure materials to ensure disclosure quality.

As a state-owned commercial bank, Bank of Communications’ financial report disclosure was supposed to be an industry benchmark, yet it contained such a low-level textual error. This not only exposed weaknesses in its information disclosure procedures, but also prompted market questions about the internal compliance and management standards.

Profit distribution schemes in listed banking companies directly affect shareholders’ rights and interests. If such a “blunder” is not corrected promptly, it is likely to mislead investors’ decisions and may even trigger market volatility.

Following in Hangzhou Bank’s footsteps

Bank of Communications’ financial report blunder this time is, in fact, repeating Hangzhou Bank’s playbook. In April 2024, Hangzhou Bank also staged an almost identical “plot.” Its 2023 profit distribution scheme announcement was likewise thrown into a joke due to a typographical error, and subsequent personnel changes became the focus of market attention in the Bank of Communications incident.

On April 19, 2024, when Hangzhou Bank disclosed its 2023 annual report, it simultaneously released a profit distribution scheme announcement that mistakenly wrote “cash dividend to be distributed per share of 0.52 yuan (inclusive of tax)” as “cash dividend to be distributed per share of 5.20 yuan (inclusive of tax),” which effectively magnified the dividend amount by 10 times. Afterwards, Hangzhou Bank urgently issued a corrigendum, attributing the mistake to “oversight by staff,” stating that it was a typographical error in the “distribution ratio per share” listed in the “Important Content Summary.”

It is worth noting that the impact of Hangzhou Bank’s 2023 financial report blunder did not stop at “correction and apology.” Public information shows that shortly after the incident, Mao Xiahong, then vice president and board secretary of Hangzhou Bank, submitted her resignation letter. At that time, she was only 52 years old. She was hired as board secretary in June 2020 and promoted to vice president in September 2023, but she ended up resigning in less than a year.

As a “finance professional” deeply rooted in Hangzhou Bank, Mao Xiahong had 28 years of tenure. She had successively served as deputy general manager of the Yan’an sub-branch, general manager of the Xicheng sub-branch, general manager of the financial markets department, chairman of Hangyin Wealth Management, and held multiple key positions. She was also recognized as “a good cadre who takes initiative in Hangzhou in 2022,” playing an important role in advancing Hangzhou Bank’s financial markets business development and improving corporate governance, among other efforts.

After Mao Xiahong resigned, she did not leave the Hangzhou Bank system. Instead, following Hangzhou Bank’s career manager management convention, she was reassigned as a senior expert. The bank stated that this is a normal personnel arrangement for “promoting younger leadership in operational management.”

Concerns about the board secretary’s situation

Whether it was Bank of Communications mistakenly writing “per 10 shares” as “per share,” or Hangzhou Bank mistakenly writing “0.52 yuan” as “5.20 yuan,” fundamentally both were serious failures in the information disclosure process. And according to the “Measures for the Administration of Information Disclosure by Listed Companies,” the board secretary, as the core person responsible for information disclosure of a listed company, is responsible for organizing and coordinating the company’s information disclosure matters, collecting information that should be disclosed, and reporting it to the board of directors, bearing primary responsibility for the authenticity, accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of the information disclosure.

This means that in this Bank of Communications financial report blunder incident, He Zhaobin, as the current board secretary, cannot fully escape responsibility. Public career records show that He Zhaobin was born in 1969. This year he is 57 years old. He holds a master’s degree and is a certified public accountant and a senior economist. On June 6, 2023, he officially assumed the role of board secretary of Bank of Communications. He also serves concurrently as company secretary and authorized representative, and has served for just over 2 years to date.

Before joining Bank of Communications as part of the board secretary team, He Zhaobin had extensive experience in supervision and financial sector work. He had successively held positions such as deputy director of the National Office of Agricultural Comprehensive Development, deputy director of the Office of the State Council Rural Comprehensive Reform Working Group, and deputy director of the Ministry of Finance’s Supervision and Inspection Bureau. He also served as a non-executive director of Bank of Communications from August 2017 to January 2021. With the regulatory requirements for the banking system and information disclosure standards, he should be very familiar.

He Zhaobin currently holds 96.7k shares of Bank of Communications. His 2024 compensation was 96.7k yuan. His job performance is directly tied to his own interests and the company’s image.

So, after this financial report blunder, will He Zhaobin follow Mao Xiahong’s example and choose to resign? Based on the current situation, Bank of Communications has not yet released any announcement regarding personnel changes for the board secretary, and He Zhaobin is still in office. However, considering Hangzhou Bank’s past case, even if it does not involve major illegal or noncompliant conduct, significant mistakes in information disclosure are often accompanied by accountability for management responsibilities. As the direct responsible party, the board secretary is often a key target in personnel adjustments.

That said, there are also clear differences between the two cases. In Hangzhou Bank, Mao Xiahong’s resignation, besides being influenced by the financial report blunder, is also related to the institution’s convention of “career managers exiting operational management posts before the retirement age due to age, and promoting younger leadership.” After resigning, she still remained at the bank as a senior expert, which constitutes a smooth transition. By contrast, He Zhaobin is currently 57 years old, still some time away from normal retirement, and his tenure is relatively short. If the mistake is determined to be “poor performance in fulfilling duties,” his subsequent direction still involves substantial uncertainty.

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