Qi Jinbo led Dezhou Bank out of the mire; this achievement should be remembered.

Ask AI · How can Qijinbo’s experience in state-owned banks help Texas Bank transform?

Produced by | China Interview Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

In July 2025, Qijinbo, who has extensive experience in the governance of state-owned banks, officially took charge of Texas Bank, injecting strong momentum into this local city commercial bank that is in a critical period of transformation. In the more than half year since taking office, facing issues such as legacy asset burdens, governance shortfalls, and pressures from market competition, he led the entire bank to advance around the main line of “high-quality, steady, and sound development.” Through a package of measures—serving the local real economy, repairing asset quality, improving corporate governance, and reshaping a compliance culture—he has driven Texas Bank to achieve a positive trend in stabilizing business indicators, a significant improvement in service efficiency, and an accelerating pace of transformation. Amid this difficult breakthrough, a clear development direction and strong recovery potential have been demonstrated.

As the largest locally incorporated legal entity bank in Texas, after taking office, Qijinbo has always remained true to the original aspiration of “finance for the people and serving the locality,” deeply integrating his own development into the overall picture of Texas’s industrial transformation and reversing the previous passive situation of disconnection from the local economy. In the first 11 months of 2025, Texas Bank turned in an impressive performance record: for the first time, the incremental growth of total assets surpassed 10 billion yuan; the growth rates of loans jumped to the top among financial institutions in the city; and investment in corporate loans, manufacturing loans, and tech innovation loans achieved leapfrog growth.

Data show that during this period, the bank’s outstanding corporate loans reached 18.58B yuan, up more than 122% compared with the end of 2020. New manufacturing loan additions totaled 2 billion yuan during the year, providing targeted support for the upgrading and renovation of traditional industries. Tech innovation loans grew 79% compared with the end of 2020, fully supporting the development of emerging industries such as new materials, integrated circuits, and biopharmaceuticals. At the same time, focusing on private-sector small and micro enterprises as the main force, the bank launched featured products such as “Lewei Loan” and “Tugong Loan.” The balance of loans to private enterprises was 2.05B yuan, up 3.35 billion yuan from the beginning of the year. The share and increment of inclusive small and micro loans have remained at the top among city commercial banks in the province.

In terms of service models, Texas Bank innovated an “online + offline” coordination mechanism, compressed approval processes, and shortened average time to fund to within three working days, efficiently meeting enterprises’ financing needs. For national strategies such as ecological protection along the Yellow River basin and rural revitalization, it delivered special loan allocations exceeding 3.2 billion yuan. The balance of green credit reached 2.052 billion yuan, nearly doubling over five years. With its outstanding regional contribution, the bank was rated as a “Shandong Social Responsibility Enterprise” for the first time, becoming an important financial pillar for high-quality local economic development.

Previously, due to the concentrated exposure of nonperforming loans under legacy issues, Texas Bank’s 2024 operating performance came under pressure, with credit impairment losses increasing significantly. Qijinbo’s team faced the problems head-on, treating risk resolution as the core task and implementing a strategy of “clearing the old and controlling the new, classified disposal.” On the one hand, it stepped up efforts to collect and clean up existing nonperforming assets, reducing risk through multiple channels such as litigation, write-offs, and restructuring. On the other hand, it strictly tightened access for new loans, improved a full-process risk-control system, and curbed the addition of nonperforming loans from the source.

After half a year of concentrated efforts, the spread of risk has been effectively contained and the asset structure has continued to be optimized. Since 2025, the bank’s credit deployment has become more precise. It has increasingly targeted Texas’s advantageous industries and emerging areas, gradually shedding reliance on traditional declining industries. Meanwhile, by optimizing the asset-liability structure, expanding intermediary business, and lowering operating costs, operating performance has been gradually restored. Although it still takes time to digest the legacy burdens, the downward trend in profitability has clearly slowed, and key operating indicators have shown signs of stabilizing and rebounding, laying a solid foundation for subsequent high-quality development.

Addressing long-standing issues of governance slack and weak compliance, Qijinbo took “fully and strictly governing the Party to drive fully and strictly governing the bank” as the starting point, launched a “Year of Conduct Improvement” campaign, and issued a series of documents including the “Implementation Opinions on Fully and Strictly Governing the Bank,” quickly improving the corporate governance framework. On one hand, it ended a代履职 (acting in place) situation lasting nearly 20 months, and established a stable and efficient leadership team and decision-making mechanism. It clarified work principles of “unity, responsibility, prudence, and integrity,” and promoted standardized performance of duties by the board of directors, the board of supervisors, and senior management.

On the other hand, it comprehensively rectified historical compliance issues. For violations pointed out by regulators, it established ledgers, cleared items one by one, improved制度 frameworks such as fund sales, credit management, and information disclosure, and strengthened employee compliance training along with assessment and accountability. At the same time, it optimized the information disclosure mechanism, standardized investor relationship management, and gradually improved business transparency. Currently, the bank’s compliance culture is accelerating reshaping; its internal control defenses are continuously being reinforced; violations have clearly decreased; and business management has started to move onto a normalized track.

In response to historical issues such as an incomplete board structure and risks related to shareholder equity, Texas Bank, with guidance from regulators and support from shareholders, has actively advanced governance optimization. It accelerated the process of appointing independent directors and gradually increased the proportion of independent directors to meet regulatory requirements, strengthening the independence and professionalism of the board of directors and effectively preventing “insider control.” For issues such as the freeze of equity held by some shareholders and matters involving lawsuits, it proactively strengthened communication and coordination to ensure risks are disposed of prudently, and to strictly prevent risks from transmitting to the bank.

Meanwhile, leveraging strong support from key shareholders such as Shandong Guotou, it strengthened capital management and replenishment capacity to provide a solid backing for business development. By standardizing related-party transaction management and improving equity management systems, it built a shareholder governance system characterized by “clear property rights, clear rights and responsibilities, and effective checks and balances,” laying a foundation for the bank’s long-term sound and steady development.

As a “seasoned veteran” trained within the Agricultural Bank system, Qijinbo, with his rich experience and pragmatic approach, has led Texas Bank to achieve a key transformation in a short period—“turning the tide and stabilizing at a steady state while moving toward improvement.” However, it is also important to remain clear that the bank still faces challenges such as disposal of nonperforming assets, enhancing transformation capability, and intensifying market competition, and a complete resolution of historical issues will still take time.

Currently, Texas’s economic transformation has entered deep waters, and new quality productive forces are accelerating their rise, offering broad space for local banks. Qijinbo’s team is pushing forward digital transformation, product innovation, and service upgrades with a sense of urgency of “can’t wait, can’t be slow,” and is doing its utmost to seize the financial track in emerging industries.

From “governance slack to efficient coordination,” and from “loss of order in operations to sound development,” Texas Bank under Qijinbo is undergoing a profound transformation. This battle to break through while carrying heavy burdens may be long and difficult, but it will be reached if it is pursued. As risks are gradually resolved, transformation continues to deepen, and services continuously improve in quality, this local city commercial bank is expected to finally escape the historical quagmire and achieve a brilliant high-quality transformation in serving local development.