Bank of East Asia (BEA) chairman and chief executive David Li Kwok-po has revealed the bank is looking for his successor, as the 63-year-old banker nears retirement.
Mr Li said the bank had already identified a number of potential successors as he approached retirement 'in the next few years'.
He did not elaborate on the likely candidates but said the bank would prefer to nominate someone internally to head Hong Kong's fourth-largest listed bank by assets.
Asked whether the bank would remain family-run, Mr Li said: 'I can tell you one thing . . . all of us who work in the bank want it to be not family-run, but to be very profitable and to be very focused on the shareholders.
'We have been upgrading for 54 years now and we want that to continue.'
Mr Li also said that non-executive director Alan Li Fook-sum stepped down as the bank's audit committee chairman in November last year. He was replaced by independent non-executive director Winston Lo Yau-lai.