Charlene Chu, who as a senior director of Fitch Ratings was among the first people to flag the growth of China’s shadow banking sector, is leaving the credit rating agency. Her departure ends an eight-year spell as a thorn in the side of the Chinese banking industry.
Outside Asia, Ms Chu is perhaps best understood as the Chinese banking equivalent of Meredith Whitney, a US financial analyst famous for her bearish calls on US banks in the run-up to the financial crisis.
Ms Chu, a native of Colorado, said yesterday it was “time for a change”. She would spend a few months working on the memoirs of a Chinese cousin, she said, but also hinted at a return to the industry. “There is so much interest in every aspect of Chinese finance,” she said, speaking from Beijing. “There’s a lot of options.”