Net interest margin (NIM) rose by 6 basis points; how did Bohai Bank perform in 2025?
In 2026, Bohai Bank, the youngest national joint-stock bank located by the Bohai Sea, marks its 20th anniversary. Amid a period of profound industry transformation, the bank delivered a mixed annual report for 2025.
On one hand, Bohai Bank achieved its second consecutive year of revenue and profit growth since hitting a low in 2023. In 2025, it reported revenue of 25.97 billion yuan and a net profit of 5.498 billion yuan, representing year-on-year increases of 1.92% and 4.61%, respectively. It was also one of only two joint-stock banks to see an improvement in NIM. On the other hand, the post-growth scale of revenue and profit still falls short of the levels seen at the end of 2022. Its NIM of 1.37% remains at the lower end among the ten listed joint-stock banks, while its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of 1.66% is the highest in this peer group. Additionally, the bank's net non-interest income decreased by 13.99% year-on-year, indicating that its intermediary business continues to provide insufficient support for overall revenue.
Against the backdrop of deepening interest rate liberalization and overall pressure on industry profitability, this youngest national joint-stock bank, with nearly 2 trillion yuan in assets, has managed to stabilize and begin a recovery. However, it still faces multiple challenges, including optimizing its profit structure and improving asset quality, signaling that its transformation has entered a critical phase.
Net interest income increased by 12.08% year-on-year, and the NIM rose by 6 basis points but remains at the bottom of the peer group.
In 2025, only two listed joint-stock banks saw their NIM increase, and Bohai Bank was one of them.
With the conclusion of the 2025 financial reporting season, detailed performance figures from various joint-stock banks have emerged. By the end of last year, despite overall pressure on industry NIMs, Bohai Bank's NIM increased by 6 basis points to 1.37% compared to the end of the previous year, making it and China Minsheng Bank the only two listed joint-stock banks to achieve an NIM recovery. However, in absolute terms, Bohai Bank's NIM remains the lowest among its listed peers, indicating that its profit foundation still requires further strengthening.
Nevertheless, achieving an NIM recovery under these circumstances was no small feat. The underlying reason can be traced to the bank's continued efforts to reduce its average deposit cost rate. In 2025, the average cost rate of deposits absorbed by the bank decreased by 0.41 percentage points year-on-year to 2%. Specifically, the corporate deposit cost rate fell from 2.34% to 1.9%, and the personal deposit cost rate declined from 2.78% to 2.57%.
During the same period, Bohai Bank's net interest spread widened by 14 basis points to 1.26%. Net interest income became the core driver of the bank's revenue growth, reaching 17.421 billion yuan for the full year, a 12.08% increase year-on-year.
In contrast to the steady growth in net interest income, Bohai Bank's net non-interest income performance was relatively weak. In 2025, the bank's net non-interest income decreased by 13.99% year-on-year to 8.549 billion yuan. Within this, net fee and commission income was 2.293 billion yuan, a significant decline of 22.9%. Bohai Bank attributed this primarily to decreases in fee income from agency and asset management businesses, alongside declines in net trading income and net financial investment income.
Financial reports show that in 2025, fee income from Bohai Bank's agency and asset management businesses fell by 36.27% year-on-year, settlement and clearing fees decreased by 10.87%, guarantee and commitment fees dropped by 1.35%, and custody business fees declined by 28.06%. Other net non-interest income amounted to 6.256 billion yuan, down 10.18% year-on-year, mainly due to decreases in net trading income and net financial investment income compared to the end of the previous year.
From a profit structure perspective, Bohai Bank still exhibits a characteristic reliance on interest income, which accounts for over 67% of its total revenue. The decline in non-interest income further highlights its high dependence on traditional deposit and loan businesses, indicating that its diversification transformation still requires a breakthrough.
Overall, however, Bohai Bank still delivered a stabilizing report card with dual growth in revenue and profit. On the evening of March 26, Bohai Bank released its 2025 financial report. As of the end of 2025, the bank's total assets reached 1.93 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.91% from the end of the previous year. It achieved operating revenue of 25.97 billion yuan, up 1.92% year-on-year, and a net profit of 5.498 billion yuan, up 4.61% year-on-year.
This marks the second consecutive year of revenue and profit growth for Bohai Bank. At the end of 2024, the bank reported revenue of 25.482 billion yuan, a 1.94% increase year-on-year, and a net profit of 5.256 billion yuan, up 3.44% year-on-year. Although by the end of 2025, these figures had not yet recovered to the levels seen at the end of 2022 (revenue of 26.429 billion yuan, net profit of 6.107 billion yuan), the two consecutive years of positive growth in both revenue and profit indicate a clear trend of stabilization and recovery.
NPL ratio at 1.66%, personal loan NPL ratio reduced by 35 basis points.
While pushing forward with its diversification transformation, Bohai Bank, as the youngest national joint-stock bank, also needs to make sustained efforts to improve its asset quality.
As of the end of 2025, Bohai Bank's NPL ratio was 1.66%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the end of the previous year. This was the largest reduction among listed joint-stock banks. However, in terms of the numerical value, it still ranks first (highest) within this peer group. Furthermore, according to data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the average NPL ratio for the banking sector as a whole was only 1.5% for the same period, while the average for joint-stock banks was even lower at 1.22%.
Analyzing by client type, the risk profiles of Bohai Bank's corporate and personal loans show a clear divergence. Personal loans have become a significant factor in optimizing the overall asset quality. At the end of 2025, Bohai Bank's corporate loan balance was 712.412 billion yuan, with an NPL ratio of 1.15%, which increased by 0.04 percentage points. The personal loan balance was 204.008 billion yuan, with an NPL ratio of 3.8%. Although this decreased by 0.35 percentage points from the end of the previous year, it remains significantly higher than the corporate NPL ratio.
It is worth noting that while Bohai Bank's personal loan NPL ratio declined, it remains relatively high compared to peers. For example, using data from the end of 2025, China CITIC Bank's personal loan NPL ratio was 1.32%, and Industrial Bank's was 1.38%.
From an industry distribution perspective, risk exposure in some of Bohai Bank's key sectors is more prominent. As of the end of 2025, the bank's loan balance to the leasing and business services industry was 253.067 billion yuan, with a very low NPL ratio of only 0.35%. In contrast, three sectors showed significantly higher NPL ratios: construction, information transmission/software/IT services, and real estate. The construction sector had a loan balance of 27.175 billion yuan and an NPL ratio as high as 4.19%, up 1.8 percentage points year-on-year. The information transmission/software/IT services sector had a loan balance of 12.742 billion yuan and an NPL ratio of 4.45%, an increase of 3.71 percentage points year-on-year. The real estate sector had a loan balance of 89.569 billion yuan and an NPL ratio of 2.12%, which increased year-on-year; however, the proportion of real estate loans to total loans decreased by 0.66 percentage points to 9.31%.
In terms of risk resilience, Bohai Bank's capabilities strengthened in 2025. Its loan loss provision coverage ratio increased to 162.16%, up 6.97 percentage points from the end of the previous year. Furthermore, the bank's various capital adequacy levels improved slightly. Its core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 8.4%, its tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 10.13%, and its total capital adequacy ratio was 12.48%, each showing a modest increase from the end of the prior year.
As a joint-stock bank that has weathered two decades, Bohai Bank's transformation journey remains long. This process requires not only learning from the experiences of leading banks in the industry but also, more crucially, basing its strategy on its own positioning to forge a distinctive and differentiated development path. The year 2026 marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period and is also a critical year for Bohai Bank's transformation. The key factors determining whether it can transition from 'recovery' to 'breakthrough' will be its ability to continuously optimize its business structure and enhance its core competitiveness while maintaining risk control, and to effectively balance scale growth with quality and efficiency.
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