China broadens graft probe into financial sector

The logo of Bank of Beijng. [Photo/IC]

Bank of Beijing Co Ltd board director Lu Haijun is under investigation for serious disciplinary violations, the bank said, the latest high-ranking banker to fall under scrutiny as China's anti-corruption drive turns to the finance sector.

The investigation comes after China Minsheng Banking Corp's president, Mao Xiaofeng, resigned on Saturday for personal reasons after media reports that he was being investigated by China's anti-corruption watchdog.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to go after powerful "tigers" as well as lowly "flies".

Graft-busters have investigated business leaders and politicians alike, including powerful former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang and Ling Jihua, head of a department which works to co-opt non-communists.

Chinese media have connected the fall of Mao Xiaofeng with the probe into Ling without giving specific details, except to note they both rose up through the Communist Youth League. Ling was sacked in December after having been implicated in a scandal over his son's death in a luxury sports car accident.

Neither Mao nor Lu could be reached for comment.

Mao, once a rising star in China's banking world, had only been named to his post in August.

Bank of Beijing's Lu was the former chairman of Beijing Energy Investment Holding Co Ltd, one of the bank's shareholders, according to a statement posted on the Shanghai stock exchange late on Monday.