With the accelerated development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) is playing an increasingly important role in commercial banks.

It has been observed that since this year, commercial banks have been injecting fresh talent into their information technology teams, with multiple small and medium-sized banks recruiting head office Chief Information Officers through "open selection" methods.

**Multiple Banks Publicly Recruit CIOs**

On September 4, Zhengzhou Bank publicly recruited one Chief Information Officer for its head office. According to the announcement, candidates must have "more than 6 years of experience in information technology work (including more than 4 years in senior management positions in information technology and more than 2 years in financial work)." The announcement shows that applicants should generally be under 52 years old, with appropriate flexibility for exceptionally qualified candidates.

According to the announcement requirements, applicants must have a deep understanding of bank digital transformation strategies, be familiar with commercial banks' application architecture, technical architecture, and data architecture, and possess strong insights into big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technologies.

In addition to requiring rich theoretical knowledge and sufficient management experience, Zhengzhou Bank places great emphasis on applicants' practical capabilities. The bank specifically emphasized in its announcement that applicants must also have experience in researching, developing, or leading the implementation of major banking technology projects.

Regarding career background, Zhengzhou Bank requires applicants to have management experience as head of information technology departments at state-owned commercial banks, national joint-stock commercial banks, or leading city commercial banks/rural commercial banks, with preference given to those with experience as Chief Information Officer or similar senior management positions.

In fact, Zhengzhou Bank is not the only small and medium-sized bank publicly recruiting Chief Information Officers through "open selection" methods. On May 7 this year, Shangrao Bank's recruitment information showed that the bank would recruit one Chief Information Officer and one Chief Compliance Officer each. The bank requires CIO applicants to be under 45 years old (born after May 7, 1980).

In terms of work capability requirements, applicants need to have strong insight and foresight in the fintech field, be able to deeply understand bank digital transformation strategies, and drive the achievement of strategic goals.

**Chief Information Officers Taking Positions**

In recent years, banks have been deeply advancing digital transformation and strengthening the construction of information technology teams. As the architect of banks' digital strategies, the Chief Information Officer has become one of the core positions in bank digital transformation.

"From a responsibility perspective, Chief Information Officers are mainly responsible for formulating banks' digital strategies, promoting bank fintech construction and business service innovation, and are the leaders in banks' efforts to excel in digital finance," said Wu Qi, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank. "As bank executives, Chief Information Officers understand both business needs and technical requirements, are proficient not only in theoretical foundations but also have practical implementation capabilities, and serve as key positions connecting business departments and technical departments."

It was noted that among the six major state-owned banks, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank both have serving Chief Information Officers. Bank of Communications' Chief Information Officer position is concurrently held by the bank's Vice President Qian Bin, while Postal Savings Bank's Chief Information Officer Niu Xinzhuang was promoted to Vice President of the bank in June 2023. Although Industrial and Commercial Bank of China does not have a Chief Information Officer, it has a Chief Technology Officer, currently held by Lü Zhongtao.

Compared to major state-owned banks, in recent years, it has become more common for small and medium-sized banks to establish Chief Information Officer positions. For example, Bank of Beijing, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Hangzhou, Bank of Xiamen, and Bank of Jiangsu all have Chief Information Officers, with many of these banks having their CIO positions concurrently held by Vice Presidents.

Industry insiders believe that the accelerated recruitment of Chief Information Officers by small and medium-sized banks in recent years also indicates their growing emphasis on fintech construction.

"Due to relatively weak digital foundations and insufficient human resources, technology, and funding, small and medium-sized banks need Chief Information Officers to stand at a global perspective and strategic height, accurately identify pain points and difficulties in digital transformation, and quickly connect the entire chain of technology research and development, business implementation, and value transformation to cope with increasingly fierce industry competition and customers' growing service demands," Wu Qi frankly stated that the selection of Chief Information Officers to some extent determines the success or failure of small and medium-sized banks' transformation.

It was observed that compared to internal promotions at national banks, small and medium-sized banks typically choose "open selection" methods to recruit Chief Information Officers. As early as 2023, multiple regional commercial banks including Bank of Tianjin, Changjiang Bank, and Inner Mongolia Bank had issued announcements for publicly recruiting CIOs.

"This is because within small and medium-sized banks, talent that understands both technology and business is relatively scarce," Wu Qi explained. "Through 'open selection' methods, small and medium-sized banks can help select talent with cross-industry, cross-field, and cross-bank experience. These candidates have been market-tested and possess more replicable and implementable practical experience, enabling them to make breakthroughs in a relatively short time."