China's top banker goes missing, fear grips the nation’s finance industry

Beijing: A leading banker in China has gone missing over the past two days, fueling speculations about Chinese authorities’ hands behind it.

Banker Bao Fan, who pilots China Renaissance Holdings Ltd, is one of China’s prominent banker with well-knit connections across finance industry, Bloomberg reported.

The banker’s wife reportedly said he was assisting an investigation while his company lost touch with him for about two days.

Making his disappearance all the more mysterious, the report said the former president of China Renaissance Cong Lin has been gotten ‘involved in a probe by authorities since September’.

Meanwhile shares of the China Renaissance spiraled down as much as 50% on Friday.

Executives involved in government probe going unreachable is not uncommon in China, according to the report.

Disappearance of Bao, who is a go-to banker for leading Chinese companies, perplexes the finance industry.

Meanwhile, Bao’s bank is normally working under its executive committee while its boards maintained that it is not aware of his whereabouts.

Bao who is the chairman and chief executive of the company holds a controlling stake in the company.

Bloomberg said the bank’s spokesperson in New York refused to comment about Bao when contacted on Thursday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption probe launched in 2021 targeting China’s financial sector ‘ brought down’ several officials, which could form familiar backdrop to Bao’s disappearance.

Xi Jinping’s order for probe led to implicating several of the investment banking community.

Bao, a former banker at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG, was instrumental in difficult mergers and acquisitions.

His China Renaissance as an investor helped many tech companies grow into giants.