Wang Bin, who is the chairman of China’s biggest insurer is being probed by Communist Party’s anti-corruption commission.
The China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement, “Wang suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and investigation.”
Wang chairs China Life Insurance, which is listed in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and New York.
Highlighting its support to Beijing’s actions to cleanse the country’s political and financial systems, China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. said will cooperate with investigations.
As per state-owned Securities Times, Wang is the first high-level official in China’s finance sector embroiled in an anti-corruption campaign this year.
It comes with Chinese property giant Evergrande Group reeling under more than $300 billion in liabilities and becoming the world’s most indebted developer. This includes nearly $20 billion of offshore bonds deemed in cross-default by ratings agencies last month after it missed payments.
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More than a million officials have been punished in recent years in a wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign launched under President Xi Jinping.
As Chinese authorities step up scrutiny over the nation’s $54 trillion financial system, Beijing’s anti-graft crackdown has taken down more than 20 financial officials so far.
Last year China executed Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of Huarong, one of China’s largest state-controlled asset management firms, who was accused of taking $260 million worth of bribes.
In September Yuan Renguo, the former head of Keichow Moutai, the world’s most valuable spirits company, was jailed for life for taking more than $17 million in bribes.
In 2020, the former head of China’s insurance regulator was sentenced to 11 years in prison, also on charges of taking bribes.
(With inputs from agencies)
