(Yicai Global) Sept. 14 -- Following the reported detention of one ofBank of East Asia’s top executives in the Chinese mainland on suspicion of taking bribes, the lender said it resulted entirely from his own actions.

Police detained Chen Zhiren, assistant to BEA China’s president and head of the lender’s North China region, on July 19, financial news outlet Cailianshe reported yesterday, adding that he is suspected of being bribed to make loans.

The matter solely concerns the personal actions of an individual employee, the Hong Kong-based bank told Yicai Global today.

BEA said it has a strict internal control mechanism, and the matter involving Chen has had no impact on the bank’s China loan business nor does it involve East Asia Qianhai Securities, a joint venture of BEA.

Chen, 47, has an Executive MBA from Tsinghua University and joined BEA in 1996, according to BEA China’s 2021 annual report. He has been the assistant to BEA China’s president and head of BEA China’s North China operations since August 2018, having earlier being appointed to lead BEA China’s Beijing branch.

BEA China has received a number of fines from Chinese regulators in the past two years, amounting to nearly CNY30 million (USD4.3 million). In May last year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission fined it CNY11.2 million for 18 violations that included not recording property developer loans in its real estate development loan accounts.

Earlier this year, BEA China was fined CNY16.7 million for violating credit information collection and related rules, a notice from the Shanghai branch of the People’s Bank of China showed on Jan. 10.

The Ningbo branch of BEA China was handed a CNY300,000 (USD43,100) fine in April for failure to fulfill its post-loan management responsibilities and for misappropriation of property development loans, according to a notice issued by the CBIRC’s local branch.

Founded in Hong Kong in 1918, BEA incorporated its wholly-owned mainland unit BEA China in 2007. As of the end of last year, BEA China employed 3,252 staff and operated 70 branches in 38 mainland cities.

East Asia Qianhai Securities, in which BEA owns 49 percent, was incorporated in Shenzhen’s Qianhai Free Trade Zone, in August 2017.

Editors: Xu Wei, Peter Thomas