(Yicai Global) Jan. 10 -- China Life Insurance’s stock price dropped after the country’s anti-graft watchdog started investigating the chairman of the large state-owned insurer for suspected severe violations of discipline and laws.

China Life [SHA: 601628] fell 1.7 percent in Shanghai today to end at CNY30.01 (USD4.71), after earlier slumping as much as 3.4 percent. Its Hong Kong-listed shares [HKG: 2628] fell 1.6 percent to HKD13.24 (USD1.70).

China Life said yesterday that its board will meet soon to name a new chairman after the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on Jan. 8 that Wang Bin had been placed under investigation. He was last seen in public on Dec. 29 attending the opening ceremony for a Shanghai branch of a wealth management unit of affiliate China Guangfa Bank.

Wang, 63, has been China Life’s chairman since September 2018. Before joining the Beijing-based company, he headed Guangfa Bank for over six years. He also worked at People’s Bank of China, Agricultural Development Bank of China, and Bank of Communications.

China Life, whose controlling shareholder is the Ministry of Finance, had assets in excess of CNY4.7 trillion (USD741.6 billion) in the first three quarters of last year, according to its latest earnings report. Net profit was CNY48.5 billion (USD7.6 billion) and revenue was CNY727.7 billion (USD114.1 billion) in the period.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione