Top bank official said to be under investigation

   Date:2012/05/31

A VICE president at the Agricultural Bank of China, the nation's third largest bank by market value, is under investigation by the Party's discipline authorities, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Yang Kun has not been in his office in over a week, the source said yesterday, and has been taken away by the Party's disciplinary body, which typically probes allegations of corruption and other crimes before handing suspects over to judicial authorities.

AgBank's Hong Kong-listed stock closed down 4 percent yesterday, while the main index fell 1.9 percent.

The state-owned bank, which has a stock market value of US$137 billion and reported January-March net profit of 43.45 billion yuan (US$6.8 billion), said Yang was "currently assisting relevant mainland authorities in connection with certain investigations."

"The board is of the view that, as at the date of this announcement, the bank's business, operations and financial status have not been affected," it said in a short statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Further announcement

"The bank will follow the development of this incident and will make further announcement as and when appropriate."

The website of Chinese financial magazine Caixin reported yesterday that Yang had been taken away to assist in an investigation and banned from leaving the country.

The article added that a close relative had also been taken in recently for questioning.

Caixin said Yang was suspected of involvement in a gambling case involving a Beijing real estate company.

Nobody answered the telephone at the spokesman's office for the Party's discipline body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Yang joined the bank in 1981, a biography on the bank's website shows. His 2011 salary was 915,600 yuan, a bank submission showed in March.

The biography says he was responsible for operations, including corporate and consumer banking, the international department and real estate lending.

The bank was the weakest of the big four banks and so was the last to go public. It held an initial public offering in 2010, selling a record-breaking amount of shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai, raising more than US$20 billion.

 

Source:shanghaidaily

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