As the disclosure of mid-year performance results for listed banks in 2025 concludes, the first-half performance of 17 A-share listed city commercial banks has emerged.
In the first half of this year, the 17 A-share listed city commercial banks collectively achieved operating revenue of 273.291 billion yuan and combined net profit attributable to shareholders of 118.307 billion yuan.
By the end of the first half, the total asset scale of the 17 A-share listed city commercial banks exceeded 30.23 trillion yuan. Among them, 8 listed city commercial banks had total assets exceeding 1 trillion yuan: Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd., Bank Of Beijing Co., Ltd., Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd., Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Nanjing, Bank of Hangzhou, Bank of Chengdu, and Bank of Changsha.
In the first half of this year, the top ten rankings among city commercial banks changed, with Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd. surpassing Bank Of Beijing Co., Ltd. with total assets of 4.79 trillion yuan to become the new city commercial bank leader. Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd. also surpassed Bank of Shanghai with total assets of 3.47 trillion yuan, entering the top three city commercial banks for the first time.
Additionally, on August 29, Bank of Chongqing issued a voluntary announcement regarding its business situation, stating that as of July 31, 2025, the bank's total assets reached 1,008.7 billion yuan. This expanded the number of A-share trillion-yuan city commercial banks to 9.
Fitch Ratings Asia-Pacific Financial Institutions Rating Director Sarah Xue told reporters that in the first half of this year, Chinese banks, including some city commercial banks, maintained overall stable operating performance, mainly due to two factors: on one hand, volume compensated for price declines, driving a narrowing decrease in net interest income, while low base effects and wealth management growth drove recovery in fee and commission income; on the other hand, growth-stabilizing policies supported the economy, limited exposure to high-risk industries, and active non-performing loan disposal in recent years drove down credit costs.
**13 City Commercial Banks Achieve Revenue Growth**
From total asset growth rates, 6 city commercial banks achieved double-digit growth, including Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd., Bank of Chongqing, Bank Of Beijing Co., Ltd., Bank of Xi'an, Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd., and Bank of Nanjing, with total assets growing 21.16%, 14.79%, 12.53%, 12.23%, 11.04%, and 11.96% respectively compared to year-end.
Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd.'s total asset growth rate far exceeded other banks, mainly driven by high growth in non-credit assets. By the end of the first half of 2025, Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd.'s derivatives and financial investments, cash and deposits with central banks, and interbank assets grew 23.1%, 37.8%, and 41.95% respectively, significantly higher than the 16.38% growth in loans and advances.
Among the 17 A-share listed city commercial banks, Bank of Shanghai had the lowest total asset growth rate, with total assets of 3.29 trillion yuan at the end of the first half, growing only 2.08% compared to year-end.
In terms of operating revenue, Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd. led city commercial banks with revenue of 44.864 billion yuan, followed closely by Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd. and Bank Of Beijing Co., Ltd. at 37.160 billion yuan and 36.218 billion yuan respectively. Bank Of Beijing Co., Ltd.'s revenue growth rate was only 1.02%, ranking last among listed city commercial banks with positive growth.
Among the 17 A-share listed city commercial banks, only Bank of Xi'an achieved double-digit revenue growth at 43.7%. The bank mentioned in its semi-annual report that revenue growth was mainly due to increases in net interest income and investment gains. In the first half, Bank of Xi'an achieved revenue of 5.205 billion yuan, including non-interest net income of 1.307 billion yuan, with investment gains accounting for 77.44%.
Besides Bank of Xi'an, 13 other city commercial banks achieved year-over-year revenue growth. Meanwhile, 3 banks saw revenue decline in the first half: Bank of Lanzhou, Bank of Xiamen, and Bank of Guiyang, with revenue falling 1.86%, 7.02%, and 12.22% respectively.
In terms of profitability, Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd. maintained its leading position, achieving net profit attributable to shareholders of 20.238 billion yuan in the first half. Bank Of Beijing Co., Ltd., Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd., Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Nanjing, and Bank of Hangzhou followed closely, all with net profit attributable to shareholders exceeding 10 billion yuan.
Bank of Hangzhou, Qilu Bank, and Bank of Qingdao saw net profit attributable to shareholders growth exceed 16%; another 8 banks had growth rates above 5%. Bank of Lanzhou ranked last among banks with positive growth, with growth under 1% and first-half net profit attributable to shareholders of 952 million yuan.
Additionally, 2 banks saw year-over-year decreases in net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half: Bank of Xiamen and Bank of Guiyang, becoming the only two banks among the 17 with both revenue and net profit declines. This marks Bank of Guiyang's third consecutive year of mid-year performance "double decline."
Regarding the reasons for declining operating revenue and net profit, Bank of Guiyang explained that it was mainly due to LPR rate declines driving down newly issued credit asset rates, along with existing asset rate adjustments and asset structure optimization, leading to decreased interest income.
**16 Banks See Net Interest Margin Compression**
In the first half of this year, listed city commercial banks overall showed a downward trend in net interest margins.
Overall, 16 of the 17 A-share listed city commercial banks saw net interest margin compression, with 6 banks experiencing declines exceeding 15 basis points compared to the same period last year. Bank of Guiyang, Bank of Changsha, and Bank of Lanzhou had the largest net interest margin declines, decreasing 28, 25, and 22 basis points respectively compared to the same period last year, falling to 1.53%, 1.87%, and 1.37%.
Bank of Zhengzhou, Bank Of Beijing Co., Ltd., Bank of Suzhou, Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd., Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd., and Bank of Nanjing all had net interest margin declines exceeding 10 basis points. Additionally, Bank of Xiamen's net interest margin has declined year by year, reaching only 1.08% in the first half of 2025. The bank explained this was due to continued market interest rate and LPR declines and concentrated repricing at the beginning of the year, causing significant drops in average loan rates. However, the company's net interest spread and net interest margin recovered somewhat in the second quarter, with year-over-year declines significantly narrowing compared to the first half of 2024.
Against the backdrop of overall industry pressure, Bank of Xi'an's net interest margin grew counter-trend. In the first half of this year, Bank of Xi'an's net interest margin increased 49 basis points year-over-year to 1.70%. Bank of Xi'an stated that the net interest margin improvement was mainly due to reduced deposit interest rates. By optimizing deposit term structure, the bank increased its proportion of low-cost demand deposits, combined with the effects of market-oriented deposit rate adjustment mechanisms since the second half of 2024, significantly reducing liability costs.
**Will City Commercial Banks Adopt New Strategies to Address Margin Compression?**
Sarah Xue told reporters that regarding net interest margins, although effective credit demand remains insufficient and continued LPR declines will cause bank net interest margins to continue falling, considering the gradual repricing of long-term deposits, introduction of consumer loan fiscal subsidy policies, relatively limited rate cut space, and continued reductions in reserve requirement ratios and deposit benchmark rates, the pace of net interest margin compression is expected to gradually slow.
Regarding non-interest income, bank fee and commission income growth is expected to recover this year. On one hand, last year bank fee income was pressured by fund and insurance fee rate cuts, but with rate adjustments completed this year, full-year fee income is expected to improve. On the other hand, against the backdrop of continuously declining deposit benchmark rates and gradually warming capital markets, the attractiveness of wealth management products and equity assets has increased, driving wealth management and distribution income to stabilize and recover.
**3 Banks Plan Dividend Distributions Totaling Over 7 Billion Yuan**
In the first half of this year, multiple city commercial banks saw asset quality improvements. The National Financial Regulatory Administration's "Main Regulatory Indicator Data for the Banking and Insurance Industries in Q2 2025" showed that at the end of the second quarter of 2025, city commercial banks' non-performing loan ratio was 1.76%, down 0.03 percentage points from the previous quarter.
Specifically, all 17 A-share listed city commercial banks had non-performing loan ratios below 2%. The top five were Bank of Lanzhou, Bank of Zhengzhou, Bank of Guiyang, Bank of Xi'an, and Bank Of Beijing Co., Ltd., with non-performing loan ratios of 1.81%, 1.76%, 1.70%, 1.60%, and 1.30% respectively.
By the end of the first half, 7 listed city commercial banks had non-performing loan ratios below 1%: Bank of Nanjing, Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd., Bank of Suzhou, Bank of Xiamen, Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd., Bank of Hangzhou, and Bank of Chengdu, with ratios of 0.84%, 0.84%, 0.83%, 0.83%, 0.76%, 0.76%, and 0.66% respectively. Notably, since its 2007 listing, Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd. has consistently maintained a non-performing loan ratio below 1%.
Additionally, among the 17 A-share listed city commercial banks, Bank of Nanjing, Bank of Guiyang, and Bank of Xiamen saw non-performing loan ratios increase 0.01, 0.12, and 0.09 percentage points respectively compared to year-end; Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Hangzhou, Bank of Changsha, and Bank of Chengdu remained flat compared to year-end, while other city commercial banks all achieved decreases.
Regarding dividends, among the 17 listed city commercial banks, 3 banks have announced interim dividends: Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd., Bank of Shanghai, and Bank of Changsha. Bank of Changsha and Bank Of Ningbo Co.,Ltd. introduced interim dividends for the first time this year, planning to distribute 804 million yuan and 1.981 billion yuan respectively; Bank of Shanghai's dividend plan is 3 yuan cash dividend per 10 shares, with planned dividend amount of 4.263 billion yuan.
Additionally, Bank of Nanjing, Bank Of Jiangsu Co.,Ltd., Bank of Suzhou, Bank of Lanzhou, and other banks have also released positive signals regarding interim dividends in their semi-annual reports.
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