Bank of Communications makes a one-character mistake, China Everbright Data clashes, and the bank's annual report shows a "blunder"

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（Source: Damo Finance）

Produced by｜Damo Finance

The “oops” plot in bank annual reports has been playing out one after another.

On April 1, CEB Bank (601818.SH, 06818.HK) released an announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. After review, the bank confirmed the asset-size figures for its branches under review and made changes to the data previously published on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The revised figures are consistent with the data contained in its performance report published on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Previously, among the two performance reports disclosed by CEB Bank on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange, there were clear discrepancies in the asset-size data of some branches, drawing market attention. In its annual report, the bank disclosed a total of 47 branches, and for 40 of them, the data did not match between the A-share and H-share versions, with differences that were relatively large.

Specifically, in the A-share annual report of CEB Bank’s Shanghai branch, the asset size is 39.54B yuan, while in the H-share it is only 395.40 billion yuan—about 11.2 times. For the Shenzhen branch, the A-share and H-share versions show 286.7B yuan and 51.88B yuan, respectively—about 5.5 times. In addition, branches such as Qingdao, Guangzhou, and Tianjin also show large discrepancies in the data.

Just on March 30, Bank of Communications (601328.SH) also urgently issued a correction announcement because of an error in its dividend report. It stated that in the “Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Profit Distribution Scheme Announcement” disclosed on March 27, it mistakenly wrote “cash dividend of 3.247 yuan per 10 shares (tax included)” as “cash dividend of 3.247 yuan per share (tax included).”

One character makes a difference—causing Bank of Communications’ total dividend amount to be inflated by 10 times to 286.92B yuan, which is an increase of 258.23B yuan compared with the correct total dividend amount. The next day, the #交通银行分红公告现低级错误# entry surged to the top of the hot search list.

An issue isn’t even resolved when another one arises. Repeated low-level mistakes have led the market to question the internal information verification process of the two banks.

Core data not affected

Looking closely at the correction reports of the two banks, this information disclosure mistake mainly involved issues with wording details or data formatting, and it did not involve adjustments to core performance indicators such as revenue and net profit.

In 2025, Bank of Communications achieved double growth in its performance: full-year operating income was 265.07B yuan, up 2.02% year over year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 95.62B yuan, up 2.18%.

The mistake of writing “per 10 shares” as “per share” appeared only in the profit distribution scheme announcement. The annual report for 2025 disclosed in the same period shows the correct data, which is a lapse at the level of textual expression.

CEB Bank’s performance last year, by contrast, showed a double decline: operating income and net profit attributable to shareholders were 126.31B yuan and 38.83B yuan, respectively, down 6.72% and 6.88% year over year.

The “oops” in CEB Bank’s annual report was due to filling in the asset-size data of branches from the H-share version incorrectly—for example, it filled the Guangzhou branch’s asset-size figure into the Ningbo branch, while Ningbo branch data was placed into the Nanning branch. As for the overall asset size and number of institutions aggregated from branches in the two versions, no errors occurred.

The left image shows the incorrect version; the right image shows the correct version

In response to this information disclosure mistake, the two companies each provided corresponding explanations in their respective correction announcements. Bank of Communications stated that, aside from the incorrect content, all other data were not modified; CEB Bank directly pointed out that there was no change to other content, and that the corrected content would not affect other materials in the annual performance announcement.

A new board secretary on the windward side

Although the core operating data was not affected, the two banks’ information disclosure errors occurring one after the other have still led netizens to question the bank’s internal reviewers. The corporate secretary, who is responsible for organizing and coordinating the company’s information disclosure matters, has become the focus of attention.

According to the “Measures for the Administration of Information Disclosure by Listed Companies,” the corporate secretary must continuously monitor media coverage of the company, proactively verify the true circumstances of the coverage, and assume primary responsibility for the authenticity, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and fairness of the information disclosed in the company’s interim reports.

This means that when errors occur in annual reports, the corporate secretaries of both Bank of Communications and CEB Bank bear responsibilities that cannot be shirked.

Public information shows that the corporate secretary of Bank of Communications is He Zhaobin, born in 1969. From August 2017 to January 2021, he served as a non-executive director of Bank of Communications, and since June 2023 he has served as the corporate secretary of Bank of Communications. Previously, he served in departments including the Ministry of Finance’s Supervision and Inspection Bureau and the National Office for Integrated Agricultural Development.

The corporate secretary of CEB Bank is Zhang Xuyang. He joined CEB Bank in 1997, and has served as its corporate secretary since August 2022; he is currently the bank’s Chief Business Officer. He previously served as Director of the FX and Structured Products Group of the bank’s Investment Banking Business Department and as Assistant General Manager. He also held roles such as Party Secretary and Chairman of Bank Financial Management Co., Ltd. Previously, in 2016 and 2018, he switched to serve as Vice President of Baidu and Vice President of Duxiaoman, and then in 2019 he returned to CEB Bank to help establish its wealth management subsidiary, serving as Chairman.

Based on the length of their experience, He Zhaobin and Zhang Xuyang have been serving as corporate secretaries for about two to three years. Under the requirements of the Hong Kong Listing Rules, both of them completed more than 15 hours of professional training in 2025. Among them, He Zhaobin also received last year the “2025 Evaluation of Corporate Secretaries’ Performance (Rating 5A)” and the title of “Outstanding Corporate Secretary.”

In terms of compensation, in 2025, Zhang Xuyang’s pre-tax remuneration was 1.5920 million yuan; He Zhaobin’s total annual salary for the year was 878k yuan, and he also holds 96.7k A-shares of Bank of Communications.

The banking industry has previously seen many instances of errors in annual report information. In August 2023, Chengdu Bank issued a correction announcement, stating that in its 2023 semi-annual report, it mistakenly labeled the net profit of its consumer finance company as 96.7k yuan but marked it as 15,923.68 yuan. Missing a single “million” character makes profits take a major hit.

Hangzhou Bank has also had two mistakes. One time, in its 2018 annual report, it mistakenly marked the company’s total assets after audit for Hangyin Consumer Finance Co., Ltd.; another time involved an error of a nature very similar to that of Bank of Communications.

In April 2024, in the “Hangzhou Bank Co., Ltd. 2023 Annual Profit Distribution Scheme Announcement” it released, it mistakenly wrote “cash dividend of RMB 0.52 per share (tax included)” as “cash dividend of RMB 5.20 per share (tax included).”

In response, Hangzhou Bank stated in the announcement that it was due to “an oversight by staff.” Then, in July of the same year, Hangzhou Bank’s then Deputy President and corporate secretary, Mao Xiahong, voluntarily submitted her resignation.

Now, even though the annual report disclosure season hasn’t ended, the banking industry has already experienced two “oops” incidents, which also serves as a warning bell for other banks that have not yet disclosed their annual reports.

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