Finance & economics | Executive exit

A surprise sacking at China Merchants Bank frightens investors

One of the world’s largest banks sheds tens of billions of dollars in market value

|SHANGHAI

CHINA MERCHANTS BANK has always stood out from the pack. It was founded by a former communist guerrilla in 1987 as China’s first commercial lender with a corporate-shareholding structure. It is part of a group with ties to a Qing dynasty project that sought in the 19th century to build an indigenous steam-powered shipping industry in order to compete with the West. The English name “merchants’‘ is a poor rendition of the Chinese, which is better translated as “investor recruitment”.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Executive exit”

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