With the gradual release of 2025 annual reports by listed banks, compensation in the banking sector has once again become a focal point for market attention. As the most market-oriented segment of the banking industry, the compensation levels of joint-stock banks not only reflect operational performance but also indicate the development strategies and competitive strengths of different institutions.
According to Wind data, among joint-stock banks, CITIC Bank (601998.SH, 00998.HK) ranked first with an average per capita compensation of 599,200 yuan. China Merchants Bank (600036.SH, 003968.HK) followed closely with an average of 564,900 yuan, while Industrial Bank (601166.SH) took third place with 564,200 yuan, nearly matching China Merchants Bank.
In 2025, the average per capita compensation across the nine joint-stock banks was 494,400 yuan, marking a slight decline of approximately 2.53% compared to 2024. This indicates that, against the backdrop of narrowing net interest margins and slowing profit growth in the banking sector, compensation growth has entered a phase of stabilization or even partial contraction.
Total Compensation Pool Drops by 3.984 Billion Yuan
If a bank is compared to a large household, its "total compensation expenditure" represents the annual "total spending" on all its members. Data reveals a clear divergence in the total compensation expenditures of these nine listed joint-stock banks in 2025.
Among the nine banks, only three saw a slight increase in their compensation pools, achieving positive growth in total compensation. Industrial Bank led with a 2.26% rise, adding 861 million yuan—the highest increase among joint-stock banks. CITIC Bank followed with a 1.87% growth, increasing by 744 million yuan, while China Merchants Bank recorded a 0.89% rise, adding approximately 600 million yuan.
In contrast, the other six banks experienced declines in total compensation to varying degrees. China Everbright Bank saw the most significant drop, with total compensation falling by over 19%, amounting to a reduction of 4.3 billion yuan. Notably, in 2025, China Everbright Bank reported declines of over 6% in both operating revenue and net profit, making it one of the few listed banks on the A-share market with a "double decline" in performance.
Overall, the total compensation expenditure of the nine listed joint-stock banks stood at 271.985 billion yuan, down by 3.984 billion yuan from 2024, a decrease of 1.44%.
In bank financial statements, employee compensation is a major component of costs. Against the persistent narrowing of net interest margins and bottlenecks in traditional scale expansion, "extracting profit from cost control" has become a key strategy for banks to maintain profit growth, shifting from being advantageous to essential.
When analyzing compensation pools, it is important not only to consider the amount spent but also the number of "household members."
According to annual reports, the total number of employees across the nine joint-stock banks in 2025 was 534,000, a slight increase of about 3,000 from 531,000 in 2024. This suggests that the sector as a whole has not undergone large-scale expansion or contraction, maintaining relative stability in total headcount.
The employee sizes of the nine banks form three tiers. The first tier is led by China Merchants Bank, which reported a workforce exceeding 120,000, reaching 121,600 employees. China Merchants Bank leads by a significant margin, with a headcount nearly equivalent to the combined totals of China Minsheng Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.
The second tier includes CITIC Bank, Industrial Bank, China Minsheng Bank, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, each with around 60,000 employees. The third tier comprises China Everbright Bank, Ping An Bank, Hua Xia Bank, and China Zheshang Bank, with employee numbers ranging from 40,000 to 20,000. China Zheshang Bank has the smallest workforce, with approximately 25,000 employees.
At the individual bank level, five of the nine joint-stock banks increased their headcount, while three reduced theirs. China Merchants Bank and CITIC Bank were the most active in hiring, with net increases of 4,384 and 2,208 employees, respectively, both representing growth of over 3%. Hua Xia Bank and China Minsheng Bank saw the largest reductions, with headcounts declining by 5.61% and 2.89%, resulting in net losses of 2,185 and 1,832 employees, respectively. Changes at the other banks were minimal, around a hundred employees.
In terms of per capita revenue generation, Ping An Bank ranked first with 3.1522 million yuan, followed by CITIC Bank and Industrial Bank. For per capita profit generation, China Merchants Bank led with 1.2352 million yuan, trailed by Industrial Bank and CITIC Bank.
Combining total compensation and employee numbers reveals that four banks—China Minsheng Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Hua Xia Bank, and China Zheshang Bank—experienced declines in both metrics. Two banks, China Everbright Bank and Ping An Bank, saw total compensation shrink despite slight increases in headcount.
As leading players among joint-stock banks, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, and CITIC Bank expanded both their total compensation pools and employee numbers, leading to divergent per capita compensation outcomes.
Largest Per Capita Pay Gap Reaches 223,300 Yuan
Based on absolute per capita annual compensation, the nine joint-stock banks can be clearly divided into three tiers, with a noticeable gap between the top and bottom performers.
The first tier consists of CITIC Bank, China Merchants Bank, and Industrial Bank, all with per capita compensation exceeding 550,000 yuan, forming the "compensation high ground" among joint-stock banks. CITIC Bank led with 599,200 yuan, maintaining a clear advantage despite a slight decline from 2024, equivalent to a monthly average of 49,900 yuan per employee.
China Merchants Bank followed with 564,900 yuan. As the "king of retail banking," it consistently ranks among the top in compensation levels. Industrial Bank took third place with 564,200 yuan, less than 1,000 yuan behind China Merchants Bank. Its "commercial banking + investment banking" business model supports stable earnings, facilitating steady compensation growth. Both banks averaged around 47,000 yuan per employee monthly.
Measured against operating revenue and net profit, CITIC Bank appears more generous to its employees. Wind data shows that China Merchants Bank's operating revenue and net profit attributable to parents were 1.59 times and 1.94 times those of CITIC Bank, respectively. Industrial Bank's operating revenue was on par with CITIC Bank, but its net profit was 6.8 billion yuan higher.
The second tier includes China Zheshang Bank and China Minsheng Bank, with per capita compensation between 500,000 and 530,000 yuan, placing them in the medium range. China Zheshang Bank averaged 521,600 yuan, or 43,500 yuan monthly, while China Minsheng Bank averaged 506,500 yuan, or 42,200 yuan monthly.
The third tier comprises Ping An Bank, Hua Xia Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and China Everbright Bank, with per capita annual compensation below 460,000 yuan: 457,600 yuan, 441,300 yuan, 418,600 yuan, and 375,900 yuan, respectively. This translates to monthly averages of 38,100 yuan, 36,800 yuan, 34,900 yuan, and 31,300 yuan.
China Everbright Bank had the lowest per capita compensation among the nine banks, with a gap of 223,300 yuan compared to top-ranked CITIC Bank, highlighting a significant disparity.
Overall, the arithmetic average per capita compensation for the nine joint-stock banks in 2025 was approximately 494,400 yuan, down about 2.53% from the 2024 average of 507,300 yuan. This further underscores that compensation growth has stabilized or even contracted in certain areas amid narrowing net interest margins and slower profit growth in the banking sector.
In terms of year-on-year changes, Hua Xia Bank stood out with the highest increase of 4.60%, raising per capita annual compensation by 19,400 yuan from 421,900 yuan in 2024 to 441,300 yuan in 2025. China Minsheng Bank followed with a 2.36% increase, adding 11,700 yuan, while Industrial Bank grew by 1.90%, adding 10,500 yuan, aligning compensation growth with performance.
The remaining six joint-stock banks saw declines in per capita compensation. China Everbright Bank experienced the sharpest drop, down 19.96%, with per capita compensation falling by 93,700 yuan. This reduction is closely tied to its dual decline in revenue and net profit for 2025, making salary cuts a key measure for cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
China Zheshang Bank saw the second-largest decline, down 4.22%, with per capita compensation dropping by 23,000 yuan. The decreases at China Merchants Bank, Ping An Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and CITIC Bank were more moderate, falling by 2.75%, 1.88%, 1.59%, and 1.45%, respectively, with reductions ranging from 6,700 to 16,000 yuan per employee.
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