Five appointments, with the authority of each made clear

Mandate

Make financial reporting, funding economics and planning useful to executive and board decisions.

Outcomes

• Shortened the monthly management close from twelve to seven working days.
• Reduced aged reconciliation items from 4,800 to 430 over twelve months.
• Introduced a funding method that reassigned CNY88m of management contribution without claiming additional bank-wide income.
• Explained a CNY156m allowance increase and its separate earnings, cash and write-off implications.

Decisions in context

I took the CFO appointment with responsibility for the quality of the bank's financial explanation as well as its reporting timetable. My remit includes financial control, planning and the finance contribution to balance-sheet choices. Treasury and risk retain their own specialist responsibilities, and I do not claim authority to approve every transaction reflected in the accounts. I lead 118 finance colleagues through six direct reports and report to the chief executive. My audit committee attendance gives directors an opportunity to challenge management's account; it does not make me a director. The faster close, revised internal funding method and allowance decision each required us to retain a difficult consequence in the explanation. I now focus on the dates and assumptions within the income plan, while developing colleagues able to explain why a number changed rather than simply confirm that it reconciles.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; considering one compatible external board contribution.

Mandate

Connect branch performance accounts with the institution's funding and operating commitments.

Outcomes

• Introduced quarterly performance explanations across twenty-seven branches.
• Reduced unresolved internal allocation disputes from thirty-one to nine in the first full review cycle.
• Established a common planning calendar with named assumption owners.

Decisions in context

As deputy CFO, I moved from the integrity of the close to the usefulness of the management account. Branch leaders could disagree about a central charge while using the same arithmetic, because they disagreed about the purpose of the measure. I introduced a review that recorded the method, the commercial concern and the decision required. Forty-six colleagues supported planning and management accounting across the institution, but final finance accountability remained with the CFO. I attended selected committee discussions to explain branch economics and planning assumptions, without committee membership. The reduction in unresolved allocation disputes was useful because it made the remaining disagreements more specific; it did not establish that every allocation had become objectively correct. This period prepared me to take responsibility for the whole finance function by showing how a defensible accounting treatment can still require a difficult conversation about behaviour and incentives.

Reason for the move

Promoted to CFO after the incumbent's planned departure.

Mandate

Create consistent management accounts while preserving the explanation of local balances.

Outcomes

• Assigned reconciliation ownership across all eighteen branches.
• Reduced late management adjustments from 690 to 210 per quarter over eighteen months.
• Introduced a documented review route for material unresolved balances.

Decisions in context

I joined a bank whose reporting process depended heavily on local workbooks and the experience of individual preparers. My first responsibility was to establish a dependable common account without erasing the local knowledge needed to explain it. I led twenty-four colleagues and worked with branch record owners through their managers. The asset figure describes the institution within the control remit, not a portfolio I could invest or lend independently. We assigned reconciliation responsibilities and reduced late management adjustments, while retaining a route for material matters that required further judgement. I learnt to distinguish a process that was standardised from one that was merely centrally formatted. The appointment also taught me to explain the cost of control work before asking teams to absorb it. Promotion to deputy CFO followed the development of a reporting function that could support a more demanding planning discussion.

Reason for the move

Internal promotion expanded the remit to planning and branch economics.

Mandate

Prepare reconciled funding schedules and explain differences between planned and observed balances.

Outcomes

• Combined eleven recurring maturity schedules into a reconciled monthly review.
• Documented renewal assumptions for the largest reviewed deposit cohorts.
• Reduced preparation time for the monthly funding analysis from six days to four.

Decisions in context

The treasury planning role introduced me to the time dimension of a banking balance sheet. I prepared schedules, checked their reconciliation and compared expected funding patterns with actual balances. I did not deal in markets or set liquidity limits. My analysis supported decisions made by treasury leadership and the authorised management forums. Working in a seven-person team, I learnt that a period-end balance could be accurate without describing the resources available through the month. The consolidation of eleven schedules improved preparation, but its greater value was that assumptions became easier to locate and question. I also learnt to distinguish contractual dates from behavioural expectations. Those distinctions later shaped my approach to income planning. I left to take a financial-controller appointment because I wanted responsibility for the broader account that connected specialist analysis with the institution's management reporting.

Reason for the move

Accepted a financial-controller role at a smaller institution with a broader control mandate.

Mandate

Prepare accurate branch records and resolve differences under supervisory review.

Outcomes

• Introduced a reference log for recurring unmatched entries within the branch team.
• Helped reduce items awaiting source documents from 180 to sixty-two over nine months.
• Prepared monthly reconciliations with documented supervisory sign-off.

Decisions in context

My first appointment was deliberately narrow. I prepared reconciliations, followed up missing documents and brought unresolved differences to the branch accounting supervisor. I had no lending approval or independent payment authority. The branch asset figure establishes the environment in which I worked, not a personal balance-sheet mandate. I learnt how a small recording difference could consume days when its original reference was unclear, and how a respectful enquiry could recover facts more effectively than an accusation. The reference log was a modest team improvement rather than an institution-wide transformation. It helped reduce the queue awaiting source documents and made recurring causes easier to discuss. I also learnt to preserve the distinction between a checked entry and an unexplained one. The move to treasury planning widened the questions I could ask while retaining that habit of tracing a number to its evidence.

Reason for the move

Selected for a central treasury-planning analyst role.