Former bank bosses under probe

China's top anti-graft body is investigating Tian Huiyu, former president of China Merchants Bank (3968) for suspected violations, days he was removed from the nation's top retail bank.

Tian, 56, is being probed for alleged serious violations of discipline and law, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement, without elaborating.

The authority also said in a separate statement that the former chairman of the supervisory board of Industrial Bank, Jiang Yunming, has also been put under investigation.

Jiang resigned from the bank last month and was Tian's close friend and roommate at university, according to Caixin.

Merchants Bank last Friday reported a 12.5 percent increase in net income in the first quarter to 36 billion yuan (HK$43.45 billion) and reiterated that its operations are normal. Still, its non-performing ratio of real estate loans rose to 2.57 percent as of March, up 1.18 percentage points from the end of 2021.

This came as China Merchants Securities (6099) posted a 43 percent drop in first-quarter net profit from a year ago to 1.49 billion yuan.