Fujian Huatong Bank, dark clouds gather before the storm

How does the shareholder dilemma affect the stability of bank operations?

Produced by | Caixin Society

Article | Jia Ru

Editor | He Bi

On March 17, the JD Asset Trading Platform showed that Fujian Huadong Bank’s 66.5 million shares held by Fujian Xintong Investment Group Co., Ltd. failed to attract bidders and was withdrawn from auction due to no participation.

According to the appraisal report, this stake accounts for approximately 2.77% of Huadong Bank’s total share capital, with an assessed value of 60.26 million yuan. The starting price was about 70% of the appraisal value, at 42.18 million yuan.

Unfortunately, even at 70% of the valuation, no one showed interest. As of March 17, 2026, only 27 people had paid attention to this auction.

As the first private bank in Fujian Province, Fujian Huadong Bank (Fujian OneBank) officially opened on January 13, 2017, with a registered capital of 2.4 billion yuan. It was jointly initiated by Yonghui Supermarket, Sunshine Holdings, and six other Fujian-based enterprises.

Notably, in Sina Finance’s “2026 March 15 Financial Complaint Blacklist,” three private banks—Fujian Huadong Bank, Jiangxi Yumin Bank, and Anhui Xin’an Bank—were listed for high complaint volumes and low resolution efficiency. These banks share a common trait: they all deeply cooperate with internet loan platforms but frequently fail to protect consumer rights.

On the Black Cat Complaint platform, complaints about Fujian Huadong Bank are common. As early as October 2024, a user complained that they applied for a 13,000 yuan loan through the Quanmin Wallet platform, to be repaid in 12 installments of 1,306 yuan each, with a total repayment of 15,672 yuan. After calculation, the annualized interest rate for this loan was 36%.

The comprehensive annualized interest rate exceeded 24%, and the excess interest of 920.8 yuan was deemed unreasonable fees, violating relevant financial regulations and laws. Fujian Huadong Bank was found to have inadequate supervision of its partner platform. The user demanded that the bank urge Quanmin Wallet to refund the excessive unreasonable interest already charged.

According to the audit report of Fujian Huadong Bank for 2024 issued by Tianjian Certified Public Accountants on April 23, 2025, as of the end of 2024, the bank’s loan balance was 24.207 billion yuan, with personal loans totaling 23.792 billion yuan, accounting for 95.78% of total loans.

This data helps explain why Huadong Bank’s large-scale lending is heavily skewed toward personal loans.

Additionally, another data point from the 2024 annual report provides a side perspective: the bank’s shareholders seem more inclined to deposit funds rather than lend. As of the end of the reporting period, 25 related legal entities held deposits totaling 600 million yuan, and 101 related individuals held deposits totaling 184.62 million yuan.

Among these, shareholders holding more than 5% voting rights had deposits of 300.95 million yuan, with interest paid reaching 13.31 million yuan, yielding an annual return of 4.4%.

Besides the 2.77% stake held by Fujian Xintong Investment Group, the major shareholders of the bank also face significant difficulties. As of the end of 2024, 36.02% of the bank’s equity was frozen.

Specifically, the 26.25% stake held by Sunshine Holdings has been fully frozen since 2023. Sunshine Holdings has already been listed as a dishonest person subject to enforcement by the court, restricted from high-consumption activities. Similarly, Fujian Sansheng Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., which holds 7%, faces the same situation.

In summary, Fujian Huadong Bank is caught in a complex internal and external predicament. Externally, its equity remains unsold at auction, with market acceptance in question; meanwhile, high-interest complaint issues arising from cooperation with loan platforms have pushed it into the spotlight of consumer rights protection, severely damaging its brand reputation.

Internally, the stability of its equity structure is highly questionable, with over one-third of shares frozen. Major shareholders are entangled in debt and legal disputes, weakening the bank’s capital and governance foundation, and introducing future operational uncertainties.

These difficulties are interconnected: shareholder crises undermine the bank’s foundation, while the short-term expansion through high-yield internet personal loans triggers regulatory compliance and customer trust crises, ultimately backfiring—leading to loss of market confidence and declining share value.

As a private bank, how to balance shareholder support, business model innovation, and compliance operation sustainably has become an urgent challenge for Huadong Bank’s survival.