CHINA has appointed Liu Shiyu, a deputy governor of the central bank, as head of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (AgBank), the nation’s third-biggest bank, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday.

    Agricultural Bank may make an announcement very soon, said the source, who asked not to be named. Liu will be named the lender’s Communist Party head, a move that paves the way for becoming chairman.

    Liu, 52, is replacing Jiang Chaoliang, 57, who resigned Aug. 31 to become governor of the northeastern Jilin Province. The change may precede other management reshuffles in the financial industry as the Communist Party’s top officials gather in Beijing this week for a planning meeting.

    Liu’s move was earlier reported by domestic news portal Sina.com.

    Set up in 1951 to finance rural cooperatives, Agricultural Bank was the first commercial lender established in New China and now has 450 million customers. Like other Chinese banks, it is grappling with rising bad loans and a slowing economy.

    Liu joined the central bank in 1996 and became deputy governor in June 2006, according to his biography on the central bank’s website. Before that, he worked at China Construction Bank Corp. and the nation’s economic reform commission. He holds a master’s degree from the economic management school of Tsinghua University in Beijing. (SD-Agencies)