A major personnel reshuffle has taken place among financial institutions as the year draws to a close. On December 23, it was announced that Lu Wei, President of China CITIC Bank, has been transferred to serve as a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy General Manager of China Post Group, with plans to appoint him as President of Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC).

This marks the first time a president from a joint-stock commercial bank will assume the presidency of PSBC. Lu Wei succeeds Liu Jianjun, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy General Manager of China Post Group, who also served as Party Secretary and President of PSBC. Born in 1965, Liu has reached the retirement age of 60 this year.

Industry observers note several unusual aspects of this leadership transition:

1. Lu Wei only assumed the presidency of CITIC Bank earlier this year, making this his second transfer within less than a year. 2. PSBC will return to a governance structure where the president concurrently serves as Party Secretary and executive director, while the chairman remains a non-executive director. Previously, PSBC had a configuration where the chairman of China Post Group doubled as PSBC's Party Secretary and chairman, with an externally recruited banking professional serving as president. 3. PSBC will restore its "dual banking professionals" leadership model. Current Chairman Zheng Guoyu previously served as vice president at Bank of China and ICBC, while incoming President Lu Wei has spent his career at CITIC Bank. 4. Unlike his predecessor Liu Jianjun—who brought extensive retail banking experience from China Merchants Bank—Lu Wei has primarily overseen corporate and interbank business lines, suggesting PSBC may seek to strengthen its corporate banking capabilities. 5. Over the past 16 years since internally groomed president Lu Jiajin left in 2019, PSBC has welcomed executives from China Everbright Group and China Merchants Bank to its presidency. The addition of a CITIC Bank executive further demonstrates PSBC's inclusive approach to talent acquisition. 6. Born in 1971, Lu Wei has at least five more years of career ahead, potentially ensuring leadership stability and strategic continuity for PSBC. 7. Lu's appointment continues the trend of cross-institutional personnel movements among China's major state-owned financial institutions. Recently, Zhao Rong, Business Director of Bank of China, similarly transitioned to China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation as a Party Leadership Group member and nominated deputy general manager. 8. While both Liu Jianjun and Lu Wei came from joint-stock banks, Liu served as deputy president at CMBC whereas Lu held the presidency at CITIC Bank—indicating an upgrade in the professional caliber of PSBC's leadership.

Background: Lu Wei, born October 1971, holds accounting qualifications from China, Hong Kong, and Australia, with a master's degree in accounting from Australia's Deakin University. His career began at Beijing Youth Industrial Group in 1994 before joining CITIC Bank in 1997. Over his 26-year tenure at CITIC, Lu held various leadership positions including head of the Financial Institutions Department, CFO, and head of the Asset-Liability Management Department. He served as CITIC Bank's Board Secretary from 2017 and was appointed Vice President in 2020. After a stint as Chairman of CITIC Trust from 2023, Lu returned to CITIC Bank as President in February 2024—a position he held for just eight months before this new appointment.

The promotion to PSBC presidency represents a career advancement for Lu Wei, placing him among the top executives of China's six major state-owned commercial banks.