Uncommon! After resigning, the Chairman of Harbin Bank continued to serve for over a year, and the new leader has been awaiting regulatory approval for over 16 months.

Ask AI · Why did the regulatory approval take 16 months beyond schedule—what’s really going on behind the scenes?

Interface News reporter | An Zhen

Recently, Harbin Bank (06138.HK) issued an announcement saying that it will hold a meeting of the board of directors on March 27, 2026 to review its 2025 performance and a proposal to distribute dividends. Notably, the chairman’s signature on this announcement is still Deng Xinquan. As early as the end of 2024, Deng Xinquan had already submitted his resignation, meaning that after filing his resignation, Deng Xinquan continued to perform his duties for more than a year.

Interface News called relevant people at Harbin Bank and also contacted the bank’s related department by phone regarding this matter, and both said they were unaware.

On the evening of November 6, 2024, Harbin Bank released an announcement stating that Deng Xinquan, born in January 1965, submitted his resignation to the bank’s board of directors due to his approaching statutory retirement age, requesting that he step down as an executive director, chairman, and chair of the board’s development strategy committee. When the board elected the new chairman, Pan Chunhe, then the president, was elected as the new chairman. Before Pan Chunhe’s appointment qualifications received regulatory approval, Deng Xinquan, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the bank’s articles of association, continued to carry out the duties related to the chairman.

As of March 2026, Pan Chunhe’s appointment qualifications have been awaiting regulatory approval for as long as 16 months—far exceeding the regulatory body’s principle-based approval deadline. Under the “Implementation Measures for Administrative License Matters of Chinese Funded Commercial Banks,” decisions on executive appointment qualifications should, in principle, be made within 30 days. The term for acting in the role is typically no more than 6 months. Deng Xinquan has also become one of the few cases among domestic listed banks where the chairman continued to perform the chairman’s duties for a long time after stepping down.

Dong Miao, deputy director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, told Interface News that it is still unclear what the specific situation is at Harbin Bank. Based on past experience, besides operational reasons such as incomplete or noncompliant application materials, a long delay in appointment qualifications being approved may generally involve two major factors:

First, personal reasons. A mismatch between work experience and one’s knowledge or ability—this is one of the most common reasons. For example, if certain government officials move to work at a bank but lack experience in financial work, they will not be approved quickly. Alternatively, the individual may have a record of adverse administrative penalties.

Second, reasons related to the bank. If the bank itself is in the process of handling a risk event, or if its business conduct involves serious violations of prudent operating rules, or providing false information to financial regulators, regulators are often even more cautious when granting approval.

Judging from publicly available biographical information, Deng Xinquan is an executive who combines regulatory work background with banking operational and management experience. He has more than 20 years of experience working in the financial regulatory system. In his early years, he worked at the People’s Bank of China’s Heilongjiang branch and the former Heilongjiang Regulatory Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. In 2018, Deng Xinquan joined Harbin Bank and successively served as chair of the board of supervisors, chairman, and other roles, leading key work such as strategic optimization, business transformation, and risk resolution following the bank’s listing.

Prior to being appointed chairman, Pan Chunhe had long worked at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. He joined Harbin Bank in June 2022 as deputy secretary of the Party committee, and in March 2023 he formally took office as the bank’s executive director and president. During his tenure, he promoted the expansion of the bank’s asset scale.

Although there were abnormalities at the corporate governance level, the company’s interim performance still achieved relatively rapid growth. Data show that in the first three quarters of 2025, Harbin Bank generated operating income of RMB 10.647 billion, up 10.69% year on year. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reached RMB 1.396 billion, up 77% year on year significantly. Its profit growth rate was outstanding among Hong Kong-listed local banks in the same period.

However, behind the growth, the bank’s operating and management indicators still show hidden concerns. In terms of asset quality, as of the end of June 2025, Harbin Bank’s balance of non-performing loans was RMB 11.270 billion, with a non-performing loan ratio of 2.83%. This was down 0.01 percentage points from the end of last year. Although there was a small pullback, it was still higher than the 1.76% average level for city commercial banks at the end of the second quarter of 2025 published by the National Financial Regulatory Administration.