Corporate governance standards and general operations had improved at the scandal-hit Bank of China (BOC) since Liu Mingkang took the helm, according to a senior official at the bank.
'Our operating profits for last year rose a lot . . . and the bank has not found any new financial irregularities under the new management's leadership,' said the senior official, who asked not to be named.
The bank is at pains to distance its leadership from the disgraced regime of former president Wang Xuebing.
It is believed to have taken the unusual step of allowing senior officials to talk to the press in an effort to rebuild its image after it was rocked by a series of financial scandals.
China's Foreign Ministry last week confirmed that Guangdong branches of the BOC - the mainland's largest foreign-exchange bank - were under investigation after a mainland newspaper reported that six billion yuan (about HK$5.6 billion) had been siphoned off from two branches in the province.
Mr Wang, now under investigation in Beijing for approving suspicious loans during his tenure at the bank's New York branch and later as head of the bank, is at the centre of the scandal.