Former SDB head arrested in bad-debt case

Shenzhen Development Bank's (SDB) former chairman, Zhou Lin, has been arrested with three former employees of the Shenzhen-listed lender because of alleged involvement in a US$185 million bad-loan case in August 2003, the bank announced. Zhou resigned as chairman in December 2004 and was removed from his post of secretary of the bank's Party committee in January. SDB is the first bank on the Chinese mainland controlled by a foreign company after US private-equity fund Newbridge Capital acquired 18% of its stakes for US$150 million in late 2004. The bank is plagued by bad loans and capital inadequacy.