Under former chairman Xiao, who resigned on March 17 to become chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission, BOC steered through the global economic crisis to report record profits.

However, the bank's competitiveness has been declining over the past decade.

In 2003, BOC's net profit was the largest among the big-four commercial banks, but it slid to fourth in 2012.

Guo Tianyong, director of the Research Center of the Chinese Banking Industry at Central University of Finance and Economics, said Tian's major task will be to take advantage of the internationalization of the renminbi, reinforcing BOC's traditional advantage in overseas markets, and strengthening its domestic businesses.

Measures to be adopted include developing loans with higher profit margins targeted at small and micro businesses, and establishing a global service network for Chinese enterprises with overseas operations, analysts said.

The biggest challenge facing Hu would be the further transformation of CDB into a commercial bank.

CDB was a policy bank before it was reconstructed into a commercial bank in late 2008, but many old issues remain.

"An urgent issue is its source of funding," said Jin Lin, an analyst with Orient Securities Co.

Jin explained that the CDB has very few branches, and its funding used to rely on policy-oriented financial debt, which is popular among institutional buyers because of its zero risk of default.

CDB is the second-largest debt issuer in China only after the Ministry of Finance, with a debt stock of 5 trillion yuan ($808.5 billion).

"However, the bank's financing costs will inevitably rise after transforming into a commercial bank, thus it is doubtful if the bank could maintain its profitability," Jin said.

Bloomberg contributed to this story