Yang Shujian leads the reshuffle in Huaxia Bank's retail layout: the Retail Finance Department and the Card Center exchange leadership roles.

Author | Shi Ye Yun Ye

Editor | Gu Ning

The positions of General Manager of Retail Finance Department and Card Center have been swapped! Huaxia Bank’s retail division sees new developments again.

According to multiple sources, Huaxia Bank recently restructured its retail division—Zhao Caodi, General Manager of Retail Finance Department, and Xiao Gang, General Manager of the Credit Card Center, have exchanged roles.

In fact, since Yang Shujian was appointed Party Secretary and Chairman of Huaxia Bank in early 2025, the bank’s actions around retail business have never slowed down. Notable changes include a core adjustment in senior management responsibilities—Vice President Gao Bo no longer oversees retail and personal banking, with Vice President Tang Yiming, responsible for technology, taking over; as well as leadership changes in wealth management, private banking, and inclusive finance departments, along with elevating the Consumer Rights Protection Department, which is closely related to customer service, to a primary department…

Additionally, Yang Shujian has actively engaged at the front lines of retail, leading research and guidance at subsidiaries Huaxia Wealth Management and Huaxia Credit Card Center. He emphasized strengthening collaboration with the parent bank, integrating into the overall retail development strategy, and leveraging branch resources to expand high-quality customers.

“Since Yang Shujian took office, he has required business units to implement practical measures in customer acquisition, improve quality and efficiency, and ensure the achievement of annual targets,” said a source close to Huaxia Bank. “Especially after branch managers are made responsible for operational performance, retail staff have started stepping out of their comfort zones to connect with local government departments and expand customer base.”

Swap of General Manager Roles Between Retail Finance Department and Card Center, Zhao Caodi Returns After a Year

In December 2024, Zhao Caodi, then General Manager of Retail Finance Department, no longer served as General Manager of Wealth Management and Private Banking Department. After just over a year, Zhao Caodi exchanged roles with Xiao Gang, General Manager of the Credit Card Center.

It is reported that Zhao Caodi is a veteran at Huaxia Bank with extensive experience managing branches. He served as Branch Manager of Dalian in April 2015, and of Kunming in 2019. In 2023, he was appointed General Manager of the Inclusive Finance Department at head office, then transferred to General Manager of Personal Business Department and Wealth Management & Private Banking Department. In 2024, as the Personal Business Department was restructured into Retail Finance Department, Zhao’s title was changed accordingly; by late 2024, he focused solely on the retail finance role.

Xiao Gang, born in 1968, started working in September 1990. He previously served as Deputy Branch Manager of Wuhan East Lake Branch of China Construction Bank. After joining Huaxia Bank, he held positions as branch manager at several branches under Wuhan Branch, then was promoted to full-time approval officer at head office, and later served as Deputy General Manager and General Manager of the Corporate Business Department at head office, with rich experience in corporate banking.

Interestingly, this is not Xiao Gang’s first role swap—In July 2019, he was appointed Branch Manager of Changsha Branch, while the previous branch manager, Yu Guoqing, moved to head the Corporate Business Department at head office. Industry insiders noted that “after Xiao Gang took over, he adapted quickly, leading Changsha Branch in a clear and organized manner to develop government-bank-enterprise cooperation and drive performance growth.” In March 2025, Xiao Gang was again promoted to General Manager of Huaxia Bank’s Credit Card Center.

Although both the Retail Finance Department and Credit Card Center belong to the retail division, their functions differ significantly. The Retail Finance Department is generally positioned as the leading management body for retail business, overseeing strategic planning and coordination of the bank’s personal financial services. The Credit Card Center is a specialized entity managing credit card operations, with independent decision-making authority in marketing, risk control, and operations.

Xiao Gang’s corporate banking background is expected to inject new momentum into the retail division, helping Huaxia Bank build a “public-private synergy” retail development model. Meanwhile, Zhao Caodi’s appointment at the Credit Card Center, amid industry pressures, may further help optimize customer, asset, and income structures, shifting from “land grabbing” to “refined cultivation.”

Besides these two departments, Huaxia Bank’s 2024 financial report shows that the retail and inclusive finance sectors also include three other departments: Wealth Management & Private Banking, Retail Lending, and Inclusive Finance, led respectively by Liu Dan, Zhu Lianggui, and Liu Naihui. Notably, Liu Dan and Liu Naihui are results of recent retail leadership adjustments.

In December 2024, Zhao Caodi, then General Manager of Retail Finance, was replaced by Liu Dan, Deputy General Manager of Investment Banking, who took on the role across departments. By late 2025, Wang Yong, General Manager of Inclusive Finance, was transferred to head the Investment Banking Department, with Liu Naihui, Deputy General Manager of Corporate Business, appointed as Deputy General Manager of Inclusive Finance to oversee operations.

Fostering Integration with Technology, Yang Shujian Reshapes Retail Competitiveness

In fact, the personnel rotations within Huaxia Bank’s retail system are a key part of Yang Shujian’s systemic retail transformation across the bank. This includes not only leadership restructuring but also organizational adjustments and business redefinition, spanning over a year with significant results.

Regarding leadership restructuring, by late 2025, Huaxia Bank announced internal adjustments: Vice President Gao Bo would no longer oversee retail and personal banking, instead jointly managing the Financial Markets sector with newly appointed Director Liu Yanlei; Tang Yiming, responsible for technology, would also oversee retail, working with CIO Gong Weihua.

These adjustments enable high-level coordination between retail and technology, preventing siloed operations and aligning technological development with retail needs, thus supporting the bank’s digital transformation and retail business evolution.

This approach of integrating retail and technology was a core methodology Yang Shujian employed during his tenure at Beijing Bank. As early as late 2024, he emphasized in China Financial Magazine that “retail, operations, and technology are key to banks’ future market expansion, efficiency, and service innovation. Digital transformation should drive the development of large-scale retail, operations, and technology.” Today, this philosophy is taking root at Huaxia Bank.

In organizational restructuring, in September 2025, Huaxia Bank’s 9th Board of Directors approved adjustments to some departments, including:

Merging the Trade Finance Department and Industry Digital Finance Department into the Transaction Banking Department. This move is a significant step in promoting industry digitalization and deep integration of financial services, supporting scenario-based development of retail business;

Elevating the Consumer Rights Protection Department to a primary department. Since customer relationships are central to retail, and consumer rights protection underpins customer experience, upgrading it to a primary department underscores Huaxia Bank’s emphasis on retail customer service.

Notably, over the past year, Yang Shujian has frequently visited front-line units to reshape and improve the operational quality of subsidiaries like Huaxia Wealth Management and the Credit Card Center. Early in his tenure, he led a team to Huaxia Wealth Management for research, emphasizing the importance of collaboration with the parent bank, increasing product sales, and ensuring that the bank’s sales account for at least 50% of Huaxia Wealth Management’s total, aiming for rapid growth and market positioning.

He also conducted research at the Credit Card Center, urging the next phase of development to “adhere to group collaboration, integrate into the overall retail strategy, control costs, improve resource efficiency, and streamline organizational structures.”

Today’s Chief also notes that at the end of 2025, Huaxia Bank held its first Wealth Partner Ecosystem Conference themed “New Cycle, New Ecosystem, New Opportunities.” President Qu Gang highlighted the bank’s efforts to build an “Ecological Bank” brand, with a wealth-specific ecosystem creating a “scenario embedding—data-driven—ecosystem win-win” service model, redefining the bank’s value positioning.

In terms of data, Huaxia Bank’s retail reform has shown results. As of June 2025, retail liabilities and wealth management business grew steadily, with assets under management reaching 1.0838 trillion yuan, an 8.2% increase from the start of the year; wealth management fees and commissions reached 527 million yuan, up 6.46%. Wealth product balances increased by 19.18%, and private banking clients grew by 13.79%.

Digital operations and scenario services continue to upgrade, supporting retail growth. By June 2025, Huaxia Bank’s mobile banking app had 30.1554 million registered users, a 4.05% increase from the beginning of the year; monthly active users reached 4.9158 million, up 8.53% year-over-year.