Everbright Bank's Head Office and Branch Personnel Restructuring: Annual Report Branch Data Rollercoaster?

On March 31, Everbright Bank held a 2025 performance briefing. The bank’s president, Hao Cheng, said, “Everbright Bank places a more prominent emphasis on achieving effective improvement in quality. We will not focus on scale only, compete on speed, or strive for rankings.”

Financial report data show that, as of the end of 2025, Everbright Bank’s total assets were 71,653.19 billion yuan, up 2.96% year over year. During the reporting period, operating income was 126.311 billion yuan, down 6.72% year over year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 38.826 billion yuan, down 6.88% year over year.

On the management side, the annual report shows that on March 24, the appointment qualification for Wang Yongqi, vice president of Everbright Bank, was approved; executive director and vice president Yang Bingbing no longer served as the person responsible for risk in the bank.

This time, the main focus is on personnel changes for mid-level staff at Everbright Bank, including leaders of the Head Office’s Finance and Accounting Department and the Party Affairs Department, as well as presidents and vice presidents of multiple first-tier branches.

Lin Zezhong has been appointed General Manager of the Head Office’s Finance and Accounting Department; he previously served as General Manager of the Head Office’s Operation and Management Department and General Manager of the Head Office’s Next-Generation Core System Project Team at Everbright Bank.

The former General Manager of the Head Office’s Finance and Accounting Department, Lu Jian, has been reassigned as a full-time director.

Lu Jian holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, is a senior accountant, and is a certified public accountant. He joined Everbright Bank in 2000 and has held roles including deputy head of the Finance Management Division of the Planning Finance Department, senior manager; vice president of the Nanjing and Changzhou sub-branch; finance officer and senior manager in the Finance Management Division and assistant general manager in the Electronic Banking Department; assistant general manager and deputy general manager of the Finance and Accounting Department; director of the office of the Board of Supervisors; and General Manager of the Finance and Accounting Department. From September 2022 to December 2025, he served as an employee supervisor at Everbright Bank.

Yang Lei, deputy general manager of the Head Office’s Audit Department, is proposed to be appointed General Manager of the Head Office’s Party Affairs Department; he previously served as head of the corporate business audit division of the Western Audit Center of Everbright Bank.

Zhang Ning, deputy general manager of the Xi’an sub-branch, is proposed to be appointed deputy general manager of the Human Resources Department of the Head Office; he previously served as assistant president of the Xi’an sub-branch of Everbright Bank, and in May 2021 he was appointed deputy general manager of the Xi’an sub-branch.

Wu Xuesong, deputy general manager of the Ningbo sub-branch, is proposed to be appointed president of the Lanzhou sub-branch; she previously served as deputy general manager of the Wuhan sub-branch and deputy general manager of the Hangzhou sub-branch at Everbright Bank, and in 2020 she was transferred to serve as deputy general manager of the Ningbo sub-branch.

Gong Bing, general manager of the Credit Approval Department of the Shanghai sub-branch, is proposed to be appointed vice president of the Shanghai sub-branch; he has previously served as president of the Shanghai sub-branch’s branches, General Manager of the Small and Micro Financial Business Department, and General Manager of the Corporate Business Management Department, as well as General Manager of the Corporate Finance Department and the Inclusive Finance Department.

On March 17, the appointment qualification for Du Yiguang, president of the Xiamen sub-branch of Everbright Bank, was approved; he previously served as General Manager of the Shanghai sub-branch’s business department and as assistant to the president, and in November 2022 he was appointed vice president of the Shanghai sub-branch.

Zhou Yakui, president of the Xiangtan sub-branch, will serve as deputy general manager of the Xi’an sub-branch; he previously served as General Manager of the business department of the Zhuzhou sub-branch of Everbright Bank, assistant to the president of the Zhuzhou sub-branch and deputy general manager of the Zhuzhou sub-branch, General Manager of the Inclusive Finance Department of the Changsha sub-branch, and president of the Changsha Xiangfufu Road sub-branch.

Lu Lun, head of the bond financing division of the Investment Banking Department at the Head Office, is proposed to be appointed deputy general manager of the Xi’an sub-branch; he previously served as head of the integrated management division of the Investment Banking Department of Everbright Bank’s Head Office.

When reviewing the annual reports, bank personnel noticed that for most of Everbright Bank’s sub-branches in 2025, the scale data differed dramatically from the previous year.

Taking the above-mentioned sub-branches as examples: the Shanghai sub-branch’s 2024 scale was 399.813 billion yuan, but in 2025 it shrank by 90% to 39.54 billion yuan; the Ningbo sub-branch’s 2024 scale was 75.453 billion yuan, but it surged to 338.488 billion yuan in 2025; the Lanzhou sub-branch’s 2025 scale was 100.509 billion yuan, while in 2024 it was only 25.996 billion yuan; the Xiamen sub-branch’s 2025 scale was 121.801 billion yuan, which is more than double the prior year.

At present, it is still unclear whether the reason for the above differences is that the statistical methodology was adjusted, or whether errors were caused by insufficient data reconciliation.

Partial screenshots of Everbright Bank’s 2025 annual report

Partial screenshots of Everbright Bank’s 2024 annual report

As of the end of 2025, Everbright Bank had established 1,330 branches in mainland China, including 39 first-tier branches, 116 second-tier branches, and 1,175 business outlets. In addition, it had 401 community banks. During the reporting period, Everbright Bank net added 9 business outlets and net reduced 21 community banks.

In terms of personnel, as of the end of 2025, Everbright Bank had 48,483 employees, an increase of 501 compared with the end of the previous year; among them, subsidiary personnel were 900, down by 58. In addition, there were 2,534 staff who left or retired.

By employee type, as of the end of 2025, Everbright Bank had 386 senior management personnel, 4,940 middle management personnel, with senior-and-middle management accounting for 10.99%; and 43,157 ordinary employees, an increase of 510 compared with the prior year.

(Everbright Bank employees’ situation, 2025 sustainability report)

The annual report states that Everbright Bank has improved the level of refined fee management, cut back ineffective and low-efficiency spending. In 2025, business and management expenses were 36.8 billion yuan, down 3.565 billion yuan year over year, a decline of 8.83%. During the reporting period, the cost-to-income ratio was 29.13%, down 0.68 percentage points year over year.

Of these, employee compensation expenses were 20.101 billion yuan, down 2.162 billion yuan year over year, a decline of 9.71%; property and equipment expenditure was 7.177 billion yuan, down 0.163 billion yuan year over year, a decline of 2.22%.

Calculated by “employee compensation expenses / total number of employees,” Everbright Bank’s average annual compensation per employee in 2025 was 414,600 yuan, down 10.05% year over year from 464,000 yuan in 2024. On average, it decreased by about 50,000 yuan per employee.

Executive compensation is basically in line with the previous year. In 2025, Everbright Bank president Hao Cheng’s compensation has not yet been disclosed. The highest pre-tax compensation among them was for the board secretary and chief business officer Zhang Xuyang at 1.592 million yuan; vice president Qi Ye at 1.5527 million yuan; vice president Yang Bingbing at 1.5380 million yuan; vice president and chief financial officer Liu Yan at 1.5231 million yuan; Discipline Inspection Commission secretary Song Bingfang at 1.4368 million yuan; and chief risk officer Ma Bo at 0.9950 million yuan.