(CNSPHOTO)

Frank Newman, the first foreign head of a Chinese bank, has resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of the Shenzhen Development Bank, after Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd., the country's second largest insurer, bought a controlling stake in the Shenzhen lender. Newman will remain as a senior adviser until the end of this year, the bank said.

Newman, a former U.S. treasury deputy secretary, was hired to head the Shenzhen bank by Newbridge Capital, a unit of U.S. private equity investment firm TPG Inc. that bought the badly performing lender in May 2004. His reform measures have revitalized the bank, with its capital adequacy ratio rising from 2.3 percent to 8.7 percent and bad loan ratio falling from 11.4 percent to 0.63 percent in just over five years.

The bank will appoint Richard Jackson, previously president of Ping An Bank of the Ping An Group, as its president, replacing incumbent Xiao Suining, who is to become the bank's chairman.