Chinese bank chief found dead inside his office

The chairman of a regional bank in China’s northern city of Tianjin has been found dead in his office after his wrists had been slit, state media has reported.

Yin Jinbao, who has only chaired Tianjin Rural Commercial Bank for less than a year, died at around 2pm on Saturday, according to Jinyun New Media. The report cited local police sources as saying the death was a suspected suicide but gave no further details.

The bank did not immediately reply to the South China Morning Post’s request for comment via email on Sunday.

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Yin, 54, was promoted last year to become the chairman of Tianjin Rural Commercial Bank, one of major banks ultimately under control of the municipality’s government.

He had previously served as a director at Tianjin Binhai Rural Commercial Bank.

According to its latest quarterly report, the bank had 305 billion yuan (US$47.7 billion) in assets at the end of March.

Last year, its revenues were 7.1 billion yuan, down by 9.3 per cent from 2016, according to its annual report.

But the bank’s net profit rose 22 per cent annually to 2.4 billion yuan in 2017 thanks to cost-cutting efforts.

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The British trade magazine The Banker rated it at number 319 in its list of the world’s top 1,000 banks last year.

Yin’s last public appearance before his death was reported at the end of March, when he visited a village bank in Wuqing district of northwestern Tianjin.

The death came at a time when there are growing signs of financial stress in the Chinese port city.

Tianjin, once a poster child of rapid growth, reported the lowest economic growth rate in China for the first quarter of 2018 at 1.9 per cent.