At the interim results briefing for the first half of 2026 held on August 27, Deputy President Xie Zhibin of CITIC Bank highlighted that, based on market intelligence and the bank's own client data, the repurchase rate of maturing three-year deposits and the AUM retention rate during the January-to-June period remained largely stable compared to 2025. No new trend shifts were observed, indicating that despite declining interest rates and heightened market volatility, stable deposits continue to serve as the core foundation for household wealth allocation.
Xie further noted that the structure of household wealth allocation has undergone notable transformations, characterized by two key trends. First, at the market level, household wealth is increasingly migrating toward financial assets. Second, client risk appetites are displaying a "K-shaped" divergence, with disparities in demand across various client segments becoming significantly more pronounced, thereby amplifying the need for differentiated services.
Given these conditions, Xie pointed out that the wealth management sector holds promising long-term prospects, representing, in a sense, a blue ocean market. However, it also carries the potential to evolve into a red ocean. In this landscape, CITIC Bank leverages its comprehensive product suite to capitalize on the migration of household wealth and address diverse client needs, offering inherent advantages. During the first half of the year, the bank seized opportunities arising from wealth market growth by harnessing its distinctive strengths.
As of the end of June, retail AUM saw an annual increase exceeding 250 billion yuan, with a year-on-year rise of 38.7 billion yuan—the largest incremental gain among comparable joint-stock banks. By the end of July, CITIC Bank emerged as the only joint-stock bank to achieve positive year-on-year growth in retail AUM. Additionally, retail wealth management products maintained positive growth, while non-money market fund holdings ranked second among comparable joint-stock peers, with the growth rate of these holdings leading the industry. Fee-based income from wealth management and private banking services grew by 21% year-on-year, and the deposit cost rate declined by 42 basis points year-on-year, striking a high-quality balance among scale, profitability, and cost efficiency.
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