(Yicai) Jan. 13 -- Wang Changqing, the long-standing chairman of China Securities, is set to retire amid ongoing difficulties for the leading brokerage, Yicai learned from an insider.

Wang, who will be 62 in five months, has stepped down from his position as Party secretary at the firm, a role now assumed by Liu Cheng, former president of China Citic Bank, the insider disclosed. Following the usual procedures for legal appointments, it is expected that Wang will soon relinquish his position as chairman, which will then be taken up by the new Party secretary.

China Securities took a recent hit to its investment banking business, which had been a strong suit for the Beijing-based firm. For many years, it earned more from investment banking than from brokerage services, but that has changed amid altered market conditions and tougher competition. In the first three quarters of last year, its net income from investment banking services fell to CNY1.497 billion (USD204.2 million).

China Securities’ share of the equity underwriting market is also under pressure, according to Wind Information and other publicly available data. Its share had grown steadily since 2011, reaching as high as second place, just below Citic Securities, but it has slipped back in past years. Revenue from this business was CNY21.3 billion (USD2.9 billion) in 2024, placing it fourth in the industry.

Liu, the incoming chairman, holds a doctorate in economics and joined Citic Bank in 2018, where he held several senior positions including executive vice president before becoming president in August 2023. Prior to joining Citic Bank, Liu had extensive experience in central government institutions such as the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Council General Office.

The change comes shortly after another major appointment in November 2024, when China Securities named Jin Jianhua as its new general manager. The previous GM, Li Geping, resigned for personal reasons in June 2023, after which Wang Changqing took on the role on an interim basis.

Jin has held executive positions at Citic Securities for a number of years, although he left briefly between June 2022 and November 2024 to serve as deputy GM at Citic Investment Holding.

Editor: Tom Litting