Two joint-stock banks have taken new actions, with the branch heads concurrently serving as compliance officers.

Commercial banks are no longer limited to establishing chief compliance officers at the head office level. Reporters learned that just the day after the completion of the 2026 annual work conference, on January 27th, Ping An Bank internally announced a batch of appointments: appointing the branch managers of eight branches in Chongqing, Kunming, Qingdao, Foshan, Urumqi, Shenyang, Harbin, and Xi'an as branch compliance officers. Also recently, according to "Financial Personnel" reports, Industrial Bank appointed branch managers at seven branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Jinan to also serve as compliance officers. The "Administrative Measures for Compliance Management of Financial Institutions" stipulate that the establishment of chief compliance officers at the headquarters of financial institutions is mandatory, while the appointment of compliance officers at provincial or primary branch levels is stated as "should be established in principle." Industry insiders believe that appointing branch managers as compliance officers at the branch level can proactively promote the integration of compliance management systems into the entire business process, avoid the disconnect between compliance and grassroots business, and improve compliance and risk management efficiency. It is believed that these two banks are not the only ones, and more banks will not only appoint chief compliance officers at the head office following the regulations of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, but also at the branch level.