CITIC Bank has been intensifying its debt recovery efforts recently. Two significant announcements from real estate developer Logan Holdings have both involved CITIC Bank. On March 19, Logan Holdings disclosed that a subsidiary faced arbitration initiated by CITIC Bank over financing contract disputes, involving approximately 3.699 billion yuan in outstanding principal plus related interest and penalties. Then on April 20, Logan Holdings announced another arbitration case filed by CITIC Bank's Shenzhen branch against a subsidiary, concerning about 4.365 billion yuan in outstanding principal with corresponding interest and penalties. The combined debt recovery amount totals approximately 8.064 billion yuan.
Logan Holdings remains deeply entrenched in a debt crisis and is currently pushing forward with debt restructuring. For CITIC Bank, recovering these funds appears to be a lengthy process. Reducing non-performing loans in the real estate sector represents a critical priority for the bank. As of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank's corporate NPLs were primarily concentrated in three industries: real estate, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail, accounting for 58.79% of the bank's total corporate NPL balance.
Within this, CITIC Bank's real estate NPL balance ranked highest, with both the NPL amount and ratio showing increases. By the end of 2025, the bank's real estate NPL balance reached 7.955 billion yuan, up 26.35% year-on-year, while the NPL ratio stood at 2.67%, an increase of 0.46 percentage points from the previous year. These increases were attributed to comprehensive factors including the macroeconomic environment and the ongoing transformation of the real estate market. CITIC Bank emphasized its strong focus on credit risk prevention in real estate-related sectors, proactively enhancing resolution efforts, with NPL fluctuations remaining within expected and controlled parameters.
Geographically, CITIC Bank's NPLs in 2025 were mainly concentrated in the Bohai Rim region, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and West Coast of the Taiwan Strait. The combined NPL balance in these regions totaled 43.607 billion yuan, representing 64.88% of the total. The Shenzhen branch currently pursuing debt recovery falls within the Pearl River Delta and West Coast of the Taiwan Strait region, which recorded an NPL balance exceeding 10 billion yuan in 2025.
Overall, CITIC Bank is working to improve asset quality and reduce its NPL ratio. By the end of 2025, the bank's total NPL balance reached 67.216 billion yuan, an increase of 731 million yuan from the end of the previous year. The NPL ratio was 1.15%, down 0.01 percentage points year-on-year, while the provision coverage ratio stood at 203.61%, a decrease of 5.82 percentage points. As the helm leader, 60-year-old Fang Heying places significant emphasis on risk management. In his 2025 annual report address, he noted that CITIC Bank's NPL ratio had declined for seven consecutive years, with the provision coverage ratio increasing by 32 percentage points over five years. He stated that historical burdens had been cleared, incremental risks were controllable, and comprehensive risk management had successfully transitioned from "correction" and "adjustment" phases to a "strengthening" phase.
Looking at data from the end of the first quarter of 2026: CITIC Bank's NPL balance reached 68.745 billion yuan, an increase of 1.529 billion yuan from the end of the previous year. The NPL ratio remained at 1.15%, unchanged from year-end 2025, while the provision coverage ratio was 202.45%, down 1.16 percentage points. The quarterly NPL increase of 1.529 billion yuan in Q1 2026 exceeded the full-year 2025 increase of 731 million yuan. This indicates that as CITIC Bank surpasses the 10 trillion yuan scale, controlling NPL rebound becomes increasingly crucial alongside its expanding size.
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