The board of China Construction Bank (CCB), one of China's Big Four, appointed Zhang Jianguo as its bank's new chief, CCB announced late on Thursday.

The appointment is pending approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Hu Changmiao, spokesman for CCB, said the decision was made in a board meeting held on Thursday afternoon. CCB will hold a stockholders' meeting at a later date and send Zhang's profiles to all stockholders.

Hu said the board also decided to appoint Zhang deputy director of the CCB board and the executive director of the board.

Zhang, 51, has been acting head of China's Bank of Communications since May 2004. He submitted his resignation to the bank on Tuesday after CCB announced that its board had accepted the resignation of former CCB president Chang Zhenming.

The board of CCB considered Zhang the best choice because of his experience in commercial banks and in administration, according to a source close to CCB.

Under Zhang's leadership, Bank of Communications sold a 19.9 percent stake to Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC). It also listed on the Mainland Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in June 2005, the first commercial Chinese mainland bank to list overseas.

Accepting his appointment on Thursday, Zhang said he was confident of making CCB one of the world's top commercial banks, with the help of CCB's over 300,000 employees.

The annual report of the Bank of Communications showed that net profits of the bank in 2005 increased by 7.64 billion yuan (US$953 million), or 476.62 percent over the same period in 2004.

CCB took the lead among China's Big Four state banks to go public in Hong Kong last October, its shares making a strong trading debut with investors eager to buy into China's robust economy.

China must overhaul its debt-laden domestic banks ahead of the full opening of its financial market to foreign competition by the end of this year, observers have said, and public listing is expected to help the banks improve management.

CCB's core capital reached 287.7 billion yuan (US$36 billion) by the end of 2005, with its capital adequacy ratio, a measure of its own capital in proportion to its outstanding lending, also rising to 13.57 percent.

By the end of last year, the bank's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio stood at 3.84 percent, the lowest among the Big Four banks, which include The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Corporation (ICBC), Bank of China (BOC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC).

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2006)