Imagine buying a nearly 100-square-meter property in Ningxia for just over 200,000 yuan, dealing directly with a bank and paying no agency fees. Does that sound appealing?
Recently, Ningxia Bank and Ningxia Yellow River Rural Commercial Bank have established official asset stores on the JD Asset Trading Platform (JD Auction), where they have listed a variety of foreclosed properties, including residential units, shops, and factory buildings. Listings include residential properties in locations such as Yinchuan and Zhongwei. For instance, a 126-square-meter property is priced at 280,000 yuan, an 88-square-meter unit is listed at over 250,000 yuan, and a 227-square-meter property is offered for over 690,000 yuan. Additionally, assets range from a small street-front shop priced at 90,000 yuan to an entire hotel property valued at over 90 million yuan, all offered for public auction as the banks' own properties.
It is understood that these properties are assets transferred to the banks in lieu of debt repayment from original borrowers who failed to settle their loans. The property rights have been fully transferred to the banks, classifying them as the banks' own assets. This distinguishes them from court-ordered auction properties, which may carry uncertainties regarding eviction.
Direct Bank Listings on E-commerce Platforms
On July 2, Ningxia Bank announced the official launch of its JD official asset store. Users can access the store by opening the JD app, entering the JD Auction section, and searching for "Ningxia Bank." The store aggregates various foreclosed properties, including residential units, shops, and factory buildings in Yinchuan and across the region. All listed properties are owned by Ningxia Bank, with clear产权, no agency markups, transparent information disclosure, and clean delivery.
It has been noted that branches of Ningxia Bank, such as the Beijing Road Sub-branch, Beita Sub-branch, Zhongning Sub-branch, Guangming Sub-branch, and Shangcheng Sub-branch, have also opened official stores on the platform, listing properties including residential units, shops, and office buildings.
Traditionally, banks have two main avenues for disposing of foreclosed properties: public disposal through judicial auction procedures or bundling multiple properties for discounted transfer to financial asset management companies. However, judicial auctions involve lengthy processes, often taking over two years from litigation to eviction, while bundled transfers typically face significant discounts. Directly opening official stores on e-commerce platforms to sell assets represents a new outlet beyond these traditional paths.
As of July 14, a search on the JD app reveals that not only Ningxia Bank but also multiple banks from various regions, including Jiangxi Bank, Ningxia Yellow River Rural Commercial Bank, Ningxia Zhongwei Rural Commercial Bank, Heihe Rural Commercial Bank, and Liaoning Rural Commercial Bank, are using this method to dispose of foreclosed properties. These listings cover all property types, including residential, commercial, office, and industrial, with prices generally 20% to 30% below market rates.
However, auction activity for these bank-owned properties varies significantly due to differences in location and value for money. For example, a property of approximately 98 square meters in Liaoyang City listed by Liaoning Rural Commercial Bank, with a starting price around 223,000 yuan, was auctioned for over 260,000 yuan after 59 bids. An upcoming auction for a 184-square-meter property in Heihe City, Heilongjiang, listed by Heilongjiang Rural Commercial Bank, has a starting price of 300,000 yuan. Jiangxi Bank has an upcoming auction for a residential property in a township in Nanchang City with a starting price of 562,000 yuan. Gansu Rural Commercial Bank previously listed two properties in villages under Longnan City with starting prices around 100,000 yuan and 280,000 yuan, respectively, but both auctions failed due to lack of bids.
Simultaneously, some banks are also auctioning the leasehold rights of related properties on relevant platforms. For instance, in April this year, Ningxia Zhongwei Rural Commercial Bank auctioned the usage rights of a property with a starting price of 60,000 yuan, which was sold for 81,000 yuan after 49 bids.
"The property rights have been fully transferred to the bank's name, belonging to the bank's own assets. If you successfully bid on the relevant property, you only need to pay the deed tax. You transact directly with the bank, with no agency fees, and the property has no产权 disputes or outstanding fees," a relevant staff member from Ningxia Bank stated.
An analyst noted that banks selling foreclosed properties directly online can reduce intermediate links and broaden the customer base. However, the limitation of this model is that it is more suitable for small, high-quality assets and is difficult to become the main method for disposal.
What considerations are behind banks adopting this method of asset disposal? On July 14, an inquiry was made to Ningxia Bank regarding the situation, but no response had been received by the time of publication.
Banks Accelerate Non-performing Asset Disposal
Behind Ningxia Bank's move to open a store on JD.com to sell properties lies its continuously increasing pressure to dispose of non-performing assets in recent years.
In recent years, influenced by multiple factors including the economic environment, the asset quality of the banking industry has faced overall pressure. However, through measures such as intensifying the disposal of non-performing assets, bank asset quality in 2025 presented a divergent pattern of "corporate improvement, retail pressure."
Wind data statistics show that among 57 listed banks (A-shares and H-shares) in 2025, 12 banks saw their non-performing loan (NPL) ratios rise compared to 2024. Excluding banks with insufficient data, only 5 banks experienced an increase in their corporate loan NPL ratios, but the number of banks with rising personal loan NPL ratios reached 36. Among them, Harbin Bank showed the most significant improvement in its corporate loan NPL ratio, with the corporate loan NPL ratio dropping from 2.39% in 2024 to 1.83% in 2025, a decrease of 0.56 percentage points. This was followed by Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank, with a decrease of 0.49 percentage points.
Regarding the reasons for the decline in corporate loan NPL ratios, banks commonly mentioned in their financial reports the use of write-offs and transfers of non-performing assets, which gradually moved non-performing loans from traditionally high-risk industries off their balance sheets. For example, in 2025, Dongguan Rural Commercial Bank's corporate loan NPL ratio fell by 0.3 percentage points to 1.51%, with the scale of non-performing loan write-offs for the year reaching 2.612 billion yuan, becoming an important means for the bank to optimize asset quality. China Merchants Bank also stated in its annual report that it disposed of 66.188 billion yuan in non-performing loans throughout 2025, utilizing various channels to resolve risk assets. This included routine write-offs of 22.613 billion yuan, securitization of non-performing assets amounting to 34.232 billion yuan, cash recovery of 7.503 billion yuan, and disposal of 1.840 billion yuan through other methods such as debt-for-asset swaps, transfers, restructuring upgrades, and reductions.
Data from the Banking Industry Credit Asset Registration and Circulation Center also corroborates this trend. According to previous research statistics from Dongfang Jincheng, from 2021 to 2024, the annual compound growth rate of the number of non-performing loan listings was 142.53%, and the annual compound growth rate of unpaid principal and interest was 229.99%, indicating rapid market expansion. In 2024, the scale of non-performing assets listed on the center approached 200 billion yuan. Building on this, statistics show that in 2025, the total principal and interest of non-performing assets listed on the center exceeded 360 billion yuan, setting a new historical record.
The situation faced by Ningxia Bank is even more severe. As the first local commercial bank in western China named after a provincial-level administrative region, Ningxia Bank was established in 1998. As of the end of 2025, its total assets were 214.836 billion yuan, with 108 branches under its jurisdiction. In 2025, the bank achieved operating income of 2.583 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 20.74%, with a full-year net profit of 671 million yuan. While revenue contracted significantly, asset quality is even more concerning. As of the end of 2025, Ningxia Bank's NPL ratio was 2.19%. Although this was a slight decrease from 2.20% at the end of the previous year, it remains significantly higher than the average level for city commercial banks during the same period (according to data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the average NPL ratio for city commercial banks at the end of 2025 was 1.42%).
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