After more than two years of strategic reforms, Ping An Bank Co.,Ltd. has set its sights on returning to growth by 2026. The bank's leadership emphasized that while 2025 was a challenging period, it also laid a solid foundation for future development. During a recent earnings conference, the bank's chairman and president stated that the institution is now focused on fully achieving its operational goal of resuming growth in 2026.
According to the annual report, Ping An Bank reported a 10.4% year-on-year decline in operating revenue, totaling 131.442 billion yuan in 2025. This was attributed to shifts in market interest rates and ongoing business restructuring. Despite the revenue contraction, the bank continued to enhance cost efficiency and risk management, leading to a net profit of 42.633 billion yuan, down 4.2% from the previous year. Total assets reached 5.925777 trillion yuan by the end of the reporting period, marking a 2.7% increase from the prior year.
Since the second half of 2023, the bank has undertaken significant strategic reforms, including organizational adjustments and proactive restructuring of its retail business. These efforts have begun to yield positive outcomes, with several key operational indicators showing improvement in 2025. The optimization of the asset structure, a notable increase in net profit contribution from retail operations, reduced funding costs, and enhanced asset quality have collectively supported a more balanced performance across volume, pricing, and risk.
The bank's leadership remarked that the most difficult phase has passed, reforms are taking effect, retail operations have stabilized, and corporate banking has regained vitality while supporting overall development. Looking ahead to 2026, the bank is committed to improving performance and driving a return to growth.
More than 70% of the reform initiatives have been completed, with the remaining efforts focused on refinement and steady implementation. When the current president assumed his role in June 2023, the bank—once hailed as a rising star in retail banking—was facing challenges after years of rapid expansion. Under his leadership, the bank embarked on strategic reforms aimed at rebalancing risk and returns by reducing high-risk assets, boosting mid-to-low risk operations, and revitalizing corporate banking.
Reflecting on the past two and a half years, the president emphasized the importance of strategic persistence and avoiding short-term trends. He highlighted that sustainable growth requires consistent effort and solid management practices. The retail segment, in particular, underwent a painful transition, but signs of stabilization are now emerging.
Retail credit scales began to stabilize in the latter half of last year, with credit card operations steadying, and mortgage and auto financing balances showing positive growth. New loan products also surpassed 30 billion yuan in balance, while retail asset quality improved noticeably. Wealth management revenue, particularly from bancassurance, continued to gain traction.
By the end of 2025, the bank's personal loan balance stood at 1.727294 trillion yuan, a decline of 2.3% from the previous year, though the rate of decrease narrowed. The bank also optimized its loan mix, increasing the proportion of mortgage loans, which accounted for 62.9% of total personal loans.
Retail operations contributed significantly to net profit, which surged by over 800% year-on-year to 2.68 billion yuan. This represented an increase in the segment's profit share from 0.6% to 6.3%. The improvement was driven by better asset and customer segmentation, lower impairment losses, and enhanced asset quality. Retail credit impairment losses fell by nearly 11.2 billion yuan to 37.57 billion yuan, a decline of over 22%.
The non-performing loan ratio for personal loans dropped to 1.23% at the end of 2025, down 0.16 percentage points from the previous year. Improvements were seen across housing mortgages, credit cards, and consumer loans, though non-performing loans in business lending edged up slightly.
The bank's retail head noted that the business has moved past its most challenging period, with core indicators showing recovery. He pointed to four signs of a turnaround: improved asset quality, stabilized retail loan scale, optimized asset structure, and narrowing revenue decline alongside recovering profits.
However, the president cautioned that returning to healthy profit growth in retail will take time, given ongoing pressure in retail credit demand. For 2026, the bank plans to further develop its mid-yield credit offerings, strengthen wealth management through bancassurance, and enhance digital banking efficiency. Efforts will also focus on optimizing product systems, raising current account deposits, reducing funding costs, and integrating with the broader Ping An Group's integrated finance and healthcare strategy.
While retail operations stabilize, corporate banking has played a complementary role, contributing over 70% of net profit. In line with national policy and market trends, the bank has increased lending in selected sectors and optimized its asset structure. Corporate deposits grew 2.2% to 2.295255 trillion yuan, while corporate loans rose 3.5% to 1.663546 trillion yuan by the end of 2025.
The president highlighted that corporate banking has provided strong profit support during retail transformation. The bank has refined its industry-focused, client-centric, and product-specific approach, leveraging strengths in supply chain finance, cash management, and cross-border services. While competition in corporate banking is intensifying, Ping An Bank will continue to deepen customer and product strategies to ensure high-quality growth.
Acknowledging areas for improvement, the bank's leadership noted that corporate banking systems still require strengthening. The vice president emphasized the need for cautious advancement and learning from industry peers to accelerate progress.
In 2026, corporate banking reforms will focus on accelerating lending in emerging industries, supporting transformational sectors, and implementing tailored solutions for different customer segments. The bank aims to enhance its integrated financial services by leveraging group resources.
The overarching theme for 2026 is "全力改善业绩，推动重回增长" – fully improving performance and driving a return to growth. The president expressed confidence that the most challenging period is over, and the bank will withstand transitional pressures to expand retail scale and stabilize corporate earnings.
A senior vice president noted that strategic reforms are largely complete, with high-risk operations systematically reduced. He expects loan growth in 2026 to at least keep pace with the market. Adjustments in liability and asset structures, along with a decline in funding costs since early last year, are expected to support net interest margin improvement.
The average interest rate on deposits fell by 42 basis points to 1.65% in 2025, while the net interest margin narrowed by 9 basis points to 1.78%, though the pace of decline slowed. The corporate customer base grew 13.2% last year, providing a solid foundation for future business expansion.
The vice president also mentioned that revenue decline in 2025 was partly influenced by bond market volatility. Although the bank's bond investments performed well in absolute terms, the high base from 2024 posed challenges for year-on-year comparisons. The bank is refining its strategies to better navigate market fluctuations and support stable revenue growth.
From a risk perspective, while corporate banking remains affected by factors such as real estate, overall risks are manageable, and retail risk continues to improve. The positive effects of reducing high-risk assets over the past two years are expected to further materialize in 2026, supporting profit recovery.
On the cost side, the bank will continue its efforts in cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Although the pace of savings may moderate compared to previous years, these measures will continue to support profit growth.
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