Background
Wang Xuebing was born in 1946 in Beijing, China.
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Xuebing Wang
Edit Profile雪冰 王
Wang Xuebing is a former president and CEO of the China Construction Bank (CCB), Wang Xuebing is a flamboyant protégé of former premier Zhu Rongji. Once regarded as a leader in efforts to modernize China, Wang was convicted in 2003 of taking bribes and accepting expensive gifts at the Bank of China’s New York office. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and ordered to pay US$20 million in fines.
Education
After graduating from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, Wang started a long and successful career in banking.
Career
He was an adviser to the Steering Group of the Gold and Exchange Rate Manager of the State Council. In 1988, the Bank of China (BOC), China’s largest foreign exchange bank, selected him as its general manager for US operations, a position he held until 1993, when he became chair and president of BOC, where he remained until 2000. In 1994 Wang was honored with a Distinguished Leadership Award in bullion trading by the New York Commodity Exchange.
Wang is credited with making the BOC China’s most profitable state commercial bank. As competition both within China and from international banks intensified, Wang advocated reforms within China’s financial institutions and the state-run companies to which they lend. He chaired the China International Capital Corporation (CICC), an investment bank joint venture with minority partner Morgan Stanley, and was director of international finance for the Hong Kong Institute of Monetary Research. He was a frequent international speaker on Chinese banking reform at conferences such as the World Economic Forum and the Asia Society. In 1997 he was inducted into the Communist Party’s Central Committee.
Wang moved to the CCB in 2000 as president and CEO. BOC and CCB are two of the four big state-owned banks that collectively control about 70 percent of the nation’s financial resources and market share. As CCB president, Wang introduced new products such as securities-backed loans, and began to offer agent services for insurers to bolster cooperation between financial institutions. He relaxed restrictions on housing loans and introduced individual credit ratings. In addition, Wang regrouped the CCB’s domestic subsidiaries, expanded overseas and promoted the bank’s global competitiveness. In late 2001 Wang became the only banker listed among China’s Top 21 Corporate Leaders in an award by a prestigious national business magazine. Shortly thereafter he won an accolade from the Wall Street Journal as ‘one of the shrewdest faces of corporate China.’
As head of the China Construction Bank and former leader of the Bank of China, with cabinet-level rank in the CCP and an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Wang was at the pinnacle of power in Chinese financial circles. However, concerns about his bank practices had surfaced as early as 1995, with the publication of an article in the Hong Kong weekly Next Magazine about a $23 million loan that was issued under unclear circumstances. The loan was originated in Los Angeles and was paid back not by the borrowers but by the Bank of China through its New York branch. Wang, who speaks fluent English, had long been engaged in financial dealings overseas in his roles with the BOC, CCB, and CICC. In 2002 there were several international news reports that the BOC office in New York was under investigation for potential irregularities. Although Wang denied the charges, the Chinese authorities began to review the major loans he made while leading the Bank of China.
Politics
An investigation into illegal loans was also taking place within the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is a part of the US Treasury Department. Close scrutiny revealed that the questionable deal was related to friends of Wang who had a financial relationship with his wife, and that the $23 million loan was secured by vastly insufficient collateral, and was not repaid until the bank itself covered the cost of the credit through its New York office. As a result, the Bank of China was fined $20 million in penalties paid to Chinese and US regulators for ‘misconduct’ by the New York branch.
In the end, Wang tendered a forced resignation in disgrace, and was replaced at the CCB by Zhang Enzhao, who in 2006 was also found guilty of bribery charges and is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence. The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and its Central Financial Working Committee recommended to the Party that Wang be stripped of his post at the CCP and his chairmanship of the China International Capital Corporation. He was expelled from the Party on charges of taking bribes, leading a decadent life and breaking financial rules. According to the ruling by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court on 10 December 2003, Wang was guilty of taking bribes worth 1.15 million yuan (US$139 000) during 1993 and 2001. On 14 January 2004 The Beijing Municipal Higher People’s Court rejected Wang’s appeal and sentenced him to 12 years in jail for corruption.
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Born
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Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
Education
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1987