Zhang Tao, a senior branch publicity officer, told China Daily yesterday that, according to an internal bank announcement made on July 2 by the bank's head office in Beijing, Zhou is "not fit to work as the general manager any longer due to 'troublesome' loans to Wantai Group during his term."

"Zhou is partly responsible for those loans," Zhang said, quoting the statement by the bank's top leadership.

Shanghai-based real estate developer Wantai Group, together with Nongkai Development (Group) which is headed by scandal-tainted real estate tycoon Zhou Zhengyi, is now under investigation over possible loan frauds, although no results of this have yet been revealed.

The bank's publicity officer denied local media reports that the dismissal of the branch chief had any connection with the Zhou Zhengyi scandal.

Wantai Chairman Qian Yongwei has been reportedly detained over almost 1.3 billion yuan (US$150 million) of fraudulent loans from the Bank of China's Shanghai branch.

The spokesman admitted that Wantai's loan frauds started in the 1990s, even before Zhou Lu took up his position as general manager of the branch.

But Zhou, the former general manager, will be held mainly responsible for nearly half of those questionable loans, he said.

(China Daily July 10, 2003)