Fu Jianhua, former chairman of the board of Shanghai Bank, has been nominated for the position of governor of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, according to Shanghai Bank sources.

Fu's resignation from the board of Shanghai Bank was announced on Wednesday. He is replaced by Chen Xin, the incumbent governor of Shanghai Bank.

Shanghai Bank is a local city bank which is partly owned by international investors including the International Finance Corporation, a branch of the World Bank, and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

A Pudong Development Bank insider said Fu's nomination would be discussed and approved at an upcoming meeting of the board, adding: "I don't believe there will be any hitch to Fu's appointment to our bank."

Fu, who worked with China Construction Bank, one of China's four major state-owned commercial banks, from September 1991 to July 1997, served as governor and also deputy chairman of the board of Shanghai Bank between July 1997 and January 2004. He was reappointed chairman of the board of Shanghai Bank in January 2004.

The Pudong governor post has been vacant since last September when Jin Yunsheng, former governor of the bank, was promoted to chairman of the board following the retirement of his predecessor Zhang Guangsheng.

Pudong Development Bank, a joint-stock commercial bank with headquarters in Shanghai, is one of several commercial banks named after Chinese localities but which are authorized to do business all over China.

The other two prominent examples are Xingye Bank of Fujian Province, east China, and Guangdong Development Bank from south China's Guangdong Province.

(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2006)