Financial helmsman transforms into compliance gatekeeper, 54-year-old woman takes on two major responsibilities at Hongta Securities

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（Source: Dushang Times）

Behind the shift in roles is the change in Hongta Securities’ development stage, and it also signals that it is entering a new cycle—from “earnings recovery” to “high-quality development.”

Produced by | Dushang Times

Edited by | Li Xiaoyan

Recently, Hongta Securities officially announced that Zhai Xu has been appointed as Compliance Director after receiving regulatory approval. Effective immediately, she formally assumes the role, and continues to concurrently serve as Chief Risk Officer. Judging from her resume, her most prominent advantage lies in her “end-to-end” work experience across multiple business lines.

Over a career spanning more than 30 years, she has successively worked in core areas such as capital and finance, audit and inspection, compliance and law, and credit business, covering almost all major links of a securities firm’s business operations and management. Through the gradual building of a composite capability system—“understanding the business, understanding finance, understanding compliance, understanding risk control, and understanding regulation”—the combined effect of these multi-dimensional capabilities is highly scarce within the industry, and also lays a solid foundation for her current role transition.

Looking back at her career starting point, Zhai Xu was born in November 1971. After graduating from university, she entered the financial industry and previously worked for China Industrial and Commercial Bank’s Yunnan Trust Investment Co., Ltd. and Yunnan Jinlu Trust Investment Co., Ltd. Starting from grassroots positions, in the early stage she systematically accumulated an understanding of the underlying logic of financial business and its risk structure, laying the groundwork for her later in-depth work in compliance, risk control, and financial management.

After joining Hongta Securities in 2002, Zhai Xu began a long period of deep cultivation lasting 24 years. She started in accounting roles in the Capital and Finance Headquarters and positions in audit and inspection, gradually building a systematic understanding of the company’s entire financial process. With the accumulation of experience, she entered the middle-management track. She successively served as Deputy General Manager of the Compliance and Legal Department (in charge of work), General Manager, and General Manager of the Credit Business Department, taking comprehensive responsibility for compliance management, legal affairs, and risk control for credit business. During this period, she not only deeply participated in the company’s internal system-building, but also frequently engaged with regulatory departments, accumulating extensive experience in regulatory communications and risk resolution.

In 2023, it became a pivotal year in her career path. In August of that year, Zhai Xu was appointed Chief Financial Officer, taking overall charge of the company’s financial planning and internal control system; in October, she additionally served as Secretary to the Board of Directors, responsible for information disclosure and investor relations management, becoming a key executive who steers two core modules—“finance + information disclosure”—and deeply participates in corporate governance and strategic decision-making.

In addition, Zhai Xu has also served as a supervisor who represents company employees, and concurrently served as a director of Hongta E Fund, further expanding her management perspective in the public offering fund sector and her experience in corporate governance. Changes in compensation also indirectly reflect an increase in her responsibilities and value. According to financial reports, from 2023 to 2025, the annual salary Zhai Xu received at Hongta Securities was 184,500 yuan, 848.1 hundred thousand yuan, and 93.06 thousand yuan, respectively, showing a high degree of synchronization with the company’s earnings recovery and her role upgrade.

On the performance front, Hongta Securities has already entered a clear earnings recovery and growth channel. On March 27, the company disclosed its 2025 annual report. During the reporting period, it achieved operating revenue of 2.434 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 37.76%; attributable net profit to shareholders was 1.214 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 58.84%, and it continued the record of profitability for 23 consecutive years. Against this backdrop, placing Zhai Xu—which has a composite background in finance and risk control—into a key role is only natural.

More importantly, Zhai Xu’s “one person holding multiple posts” aligns highly with the current regulatory orientation. Since 2025, regulators have continued to strengthen requirements for “integrated compliance and risk control,” explicitly proposing to break down line-based compartmentalization, avoid a situation where “compliance and risk control are two separate layers,” and promote securities firms to build a unified risk management system. Zhai Xu concurrently serving as Compliance Director and Chief Risk Officer is a direct response to this regulatory thinking.

Looking across her career trajectory, Zhai Xu’s growth path and Hongta Securities’ development pace are highly synchronized: from 2023 to 2025, as the person in charge of finance, she participated in the company’s earnings recovery and growth; starting in 2026, as the “top” person in compliance and risk control, she will shoulder the core responsibilities of consolidating the governance foundation and holding the risk bottom line. Behind the shift in roles is the change in Hongta Securities’ development stage, and it also signals that it is entering a new cycle—from “earnings recovery” to “high-quality development.”

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