New Recruits Undergo Training at Bank of Taizhou Co., China's Most Profitable Lender — Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Finance

Military Drills Help China’s Best Bank Toughen Up Its Staff

Little-known Bank of Taizhou tops UBS analysis of 237 lenders
Its new recruits are toughened for months by ex-PLA trainers

By Angus Whitley, Alfred Liu and Jun Luo

November 15, 2017 at 9:00 PM UTC

This article is part of the November 20, 2017 issue of businessweek.

At Bank of Taizhou Co., trainees are pushed to count money with lightning speed, toughened up by ex-instructors from the People’s Liberation Army and mobilized to go after delinquent borrowers with the subtlety of an infantry battalion.

The boot camp ethos would seem laughably bizarre if it weren’t for this: Bank of Taizhou is being called China’s most profitable lender and has delivered industry-beating loan margins since at least 2013.

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