Leadership Change During the Low Interest Rate Cycle: Wang Liang Retires from China Merchants Bank, Wang Xiaoqing Takes Charge of the "Retail King"

```

On April 30, China Merchants Bank held a cadre meeting to announce that the current Party Secretary and President Wang Liang would retire upon reaching the age limit, and Wang Xiaoqing, General Manager of China Merchants Financial Holdings, would take over as Party Secretary.

In line with standard business practices, after completing internal procedures and obtaining regulatory approval, Wang Xiaoqing will officially become the fifth president of China Merchants Bank. With this, the management transition of this joint-stock bank with assets exceeding 13 trillion yuan has been completed smoothly.

The successor, Wang Xiaoqing, was born in 1971 and holds a doctorate in economics. Earlier in his career, he worked for a long time at PICC Asset Management, where he was responsible for investment business, making him an interdisciplinary financial management executive.

Since 2020, Wang Xiaoqing has joined the China Merchants Group system, serving as General Manager of China Merchants Fund, Assistant President of China Merchants Bank, President of the Shenzhen Branch, and Vice President of China Merchants Bank, before transferring to General Manager of China Merchants Financial Holdings.

Reviewing his past experience, Wang Xiaoqing’s long-term accumulation in the asset management field aligns highly with CMB’s development demands in wealth management; at the same time, his cross-sector management experience helps clarify a path for building the bank’s differentiated competitive edge.

The new helmsman takes over a solid foundation that has just undergone a period of steady recovery.

The outgoing Wang Liang was born in 1965 and has served at CMB for over thirty years.

In 2022, when CMB faced significant external fluctuations, Wang Liang became president and bore the responsibility of stabilizing the situation. During his tenure, he introduced the “Value Bank” strategy, emphasizing balanced development of the four major business sectors: retail, corporate, investment banking & financial markets, and wealth & asset management.

From a financial performance perspective, this prudent strategy proved effective—between 2022 and 2025, CMB’s total assets grew steadily. Comparing the 2025 annual report data, its asset quality remained stable, and amid widespread margin pressures among leading banks, the decline in net interest margin was effectively controlled, supporting a rare positive increase in net interest income.

However, as management transitions and the low interest rate cycle continues, the tension between CMB’s macro environment and its high-yield profitability model has become a focal point of market attention.

In the past, CMB’s high valuation was built on low funding costs and high asset yields. Now, its advantage of low costs due to a high proportion of demand deposits is nearly maxed out, leaving little room for further reduction;

On the asset side, if the corporate banking business is expanded to maintain scale, it tends to dilute overall yield; if the high-yield retail business continues to be ramped up, it must, under current conditions, face twin constraints of weak demand and rising risk.

The just-disclosed Q1 2026 data directly illustrates CMB’s tradeoffs in this tough balancing act.

By the end of the first quarter, CMB’s total loans had increased 2.84% from the end of the previous year. Corporate loans became the main driver of credit growth, with a 6.98% increase in balance, while retail loans declined slightly by 1%.

Nevertheless, backed by its wealth management base, CMB maintained strong revenue resilience in Q1, with operating income of 86.94 billion yuan, up 3.81% year-on-year; attributable net profit was 37.852 billion yuan, up 1.52% year-on-year.

Among these, intermediary business played a key role.

In Q1, CMB's wealth management fee and commission income rose 25.42% year-on-year, with active performances in agency fund, trust and other businesses. Meanwhile, the high-net-worth customer base continued to expand, with managed retail client assets (AUM) reaching 17.86 trillion yuan and private banking clients surpassing 207,500 households.

In the short term, CMB's fundamentals remain solid, maintaining industry-leading advantages in intermediary business and asset quality; but in the medium term, in this era of low net interest margin, the past growth model based on strong retail is being tested.

For the new management team, how to consolidate the retail moat and seek asset quality improvement and business increments in the new cycle—when funding costs are hard to reduce, and asset-side yields are subject to market downturns—will be the key challenges after taking office.

Risk warning and disclaimerThe market has risks, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the special investment objectives, financial situations, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article fit their specific circumstances. Investment decisions based on this article are at your own risk. ```