Agricultural Bank of China chief backs pay cuts for executives

The Agricultural Bank of China’s president became the first among the mainland’s big five state banks to openly advocate a salary-reduction plan for top executives in state-owned enterprises amid a reform push by the government.

ABC president Zhang Yun, quoted by The Beijing News, pledged his support for the scheme, saying senior executives at state banks were among the targets of the plan deliberated by the top leadership last week.

The bank “will firmly support and strictly implement the decision”, Zhang said at the bank’s first half-year performance press conference on Tuesday.

According to the last year annual reports of the five state banks, most of their presidents, deputy presidents and board chairmen made around 1 million yuan (HK$1.26 million) a year. Only the president of the Bank of Communications made less than that, earning 420,000 yuan last year.

Zhang Yun’s own annual salary, before tax, was about 1.06 million yuan last year. The bank’s chairman, Jiang Chaoliang, earned 1.13 million yuan, and its two vice-presidents notched 930,000 yuan each.

The South China Morning Post last week broke the news about the salary reform scheme, including pay cuts of up to 50 per cent and new job descriptions, after President Xi Jinping and his reform team discussed the proposal last week.