CITIC BANK recently disclosed its 2025 annual report. Against the macroeconomic backdrop of persistent narrowing interest margins and widespread profitability pressure in the banking sector, an analysis of this report card reveals three distinct features: total assets exceeded 10 trillion yuan for the first time, net profit attributable to the parent company surpassed 70 billion yuan for the first time, and the non-performing loan ratio declined for the seventh consecutive year.
Reviewing the core indicators, CITIC BANK achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 70.618 billion yuan for the full year 2025, representing a year-on-year increase of 2.98%. Total assets grew by 6.28% year-on-year, reaching 10.13 trillion yuan for the first time. The net interest margin stood at 1.63%, narrowing by 14 basis points compared to the previous year, but still 7 basis points higher than the average for joint-stock banks. The non-performing loan ratio was 1.15%, marking the seventh consecutive year of decline. The provision coverage ratio was 203.61%, remaining above 200% for the fourth consecutive year.
As a newly minted joint-stock commercial bank in the "10-trillion-yuan club," how did CITIC BANK manage to break through the adverse conditions? On March 23, CITIC BANK held an earnings conference where Chairman Fang Heying, along with other senior executives, elaborated on the operational logic behind these results.
The "Cushion" of Interest Margins: How Was the Liability Cost Advantage Forged? Currently, all banks face an unavoidable reality: interest margins. In 2025, CITIC BANK's net interest margin was 1.63%, narrowing by 14 basis points year-on-year. Board Secretary Zhang Qing stated at the earnings conference that this level remains 7 basis points higher than the average for joint-stock banks. Since the second quarter, the bank's net interest margin has stabilized at 1.63%, showing signs of leveling off.
Chairman Fang Heying provided a detailed breakdown of the factors influencing the interest margin change from both the asset and liability sides. He indicated that on the asset side, several factors collectively dragged down the interest margin level: declining yields on corporate loans, personal loans, and credit card loans exerted downward pressure on the interest margin, cumulatively amounting to nearly 50 basis points. However, on the liability side, CITIC BANK effectively countered the pressure from the asset side by strengthening liability cost control.
Fang Heying presented specific data: a decrease in the corporate deposit cost rate contributed 17 basis points to the interest margin, a decline in the personal deposit cost rate contributed 6 basis points, and a reduction in the market-based liability cost rate contributed 15.7 basis points. In total, the liability side provided nearly 40 basis points of support.
Regarding this, Fang Heying emphasized CITIC BANK's balanced management of liability volume and pricing, describing it as a "wide cushion" advantage. He stated that "the balanced management of liability volume and pricing has truly created a wide cushion to withstand the impact of low interest margins."
Annual report data shows that in 2025, CITIC BANK's interest-bearing liability cost rate was 1.61%, further reduced by 0.41 percentage points from a low base. The deposit cost rate was lowered by 0.37 percentage points. Interest expense on customer deposits was 89.506 billion yuan, a decrease of 14.469 billion yuan, or 13.92%, compared to the previous year.
A deeper look into the structure reveals that this cost advantage is not accidental. Fang Heying explained: "CITIC BANK's proportion of corporate demand deposits reached 46%, consistently ranking among the top two joint-stock banks. The proportion of retail demand deposits reached 27%, an increase of 3.2 percentage points over two years. The combined proportion of three types of higher-cost deposits – those with maturities over three years, structured deposits, and agreement deposits – is less than 32%, more than 4 percentage points lower than the industry average. This deposit structure determines the downward potential and stability of liability costs." Fang Heying stated that by the end of 2025, CITIC BANK's liability costs were approaching the level of large state-owned banks, "marking our entry into the first tier of cost advantage."
Another noteworthy change is the ongoing optimization of CITIC BANK's liability structure. Within corporate deposits, the proportion of daily average balance from low-cost small and medium-sized enterprise deposits further increased by 0.37 percentage points to 22.83%. Within retail deposits, the proportion of personal deposits to total deposits rose by 0.9 percentage points to 29.66%. This continuous optimization of the liability structure is also providing a long-term buffer for interest margin management.
Non-Performing Loan Ratio Sees "Seventh Consecutive Decline": How Did Risk Control Become a Profit Source? One impressive point highlighted at the earnings conference was CITIC BANK's achievement of a declining non-performing loan ratio for seven consecutive years, even as its asset scale expanded rapidly.
At the end of 2025, CITIC BANK's non-performing loan balance was 67.216 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.10%. However, the non-performing loan ratio decreased by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous year, reaching 1.15%, achieving a "seven-year consecutive decline." The provision coverage ratio was 203.61%, remaining above 200% for the fourth consecutive year. More forward-looking indicators – the "non-performing + special mention" loan ratio of 2.77% and the overdue loan ratio of 1.43% – decreased by 0.03 and 0.36 percentage points respectively compared to the previous year.
How was this reverse combination of "scale expansion and quality improvement" achieved? CITIC BANK's Vice President and Chief Risk Officer Jin Xinian described it at the earnings conference as "the result of our bank's maintained strategic focus over the past few years, deeply cultivating system and capability building."
He highlighted several key points: first, proactive adjustment of the industry portfolio, having earlier anticipated the inflection point in the real estate market and timely adjusting credit policies. The proportion of real estate loans was reduced from a peak of 17% to 9%, resulting in relatively less impact compared to the industry. Second, the proportion of manufacturing loans increased to 21%, making it the largest industry exposure, with industry concentration continuously improving. Third, continuous optimization of the client structure, with the proportion of supported clients reaching 73% and continuing to rise, while client concentration significantly decreased. In 2025, exposure to low-quality clients was proactively reduced by over 50 billion yuan.
More importantly, there was a conversion of risk costs. In 2025, CITIC BANK's credit cost ratio was 0.89%, down 0.06 percentage points from the previous year, and the risk cost rate also decreased by 1.22 percentage points year-on-year. Through recovery and write-off channels, 24.4 billion yuan was recovered from on-balance-sheet and asset management activities, with 12.9 billion yuan recovered in cash from written-off loans for the full year. The control of risk costs directly contributed to profit growth.
This is what Fang Heying referred to as "risk control creating value" – when risk control becomes a reliable source of stable profit, the bank's valuation logic is consequently reshaped.
Wealth Management: A New Growth Engine for Navigating Cycles Against the backdrop of declining deposit rates, capital market activity has increased, and residents' demand for wealth preservation and appreciation continues to strengthen, presenting significant development opportunities for wealth management business.
At the earnings conference, Vice President Xie Zhibin summarized the current changes in the resident wealth management market into four distinct characteristics:
First, the continuous expansion of the market size. Driven by the vision of common prosperity, the growth rate of Chinese residents' financial assets has maintained double-digit growth in recent years. By the end of 2025, the total investable assets of residents had exceeded 300 trillion yuan.
Second, a profound change in investor demand. The allocation of financial assets has become more diversified, and investment behavior has become more rational, with investors no longer blindly chasing high returns.
Third, wealth management institutions face an adaptive transformation of their service models. As client needs change and product offerings accelerate innovation, service models are rapidly shifting towards a buyer's advisor model, creating an increasingly urgent market demand for investment research capabilities and advisory services.
Fourth, comprehensive technological empowerment led by artificial intelligence applications. AI technology is driving the industry to understand client needs more accurately and allocate assets more efficiently. The wealth management market has fully entered an era centered on client needs and value.
Xie Zhibin stated: "In 2025, our bank's Assets Under Management reached 5.70 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.34%, with the annual increment hitting a record high. The scale has remained the second among comparable peers for five consecutive years. Wealth management-related intermediate business income increased by 12% year-on-year, reaching a four-year high."
Xie Zhibin cited examples, noting that the annualized return rate of CITIC BANK's flagship "fixed-income plus" wealth management products and the average return of its Navigator series equity funds ranked in the top 10% and top 20% of the market, respectively. Furthermore, metrics such as the保有量 of wealth management and public offering non-monetary market funds, and insurance sales volume, all ranked among the top tier of comparable peers.
Simultaneously, Xie Zhibin particularly emphasized the continuous optimization of the business structure – the effective increase in the proportion of demand deposits contributed to a year-on-year decrease of 33 basis points in the personal deposit cost rate. This signifies that the wealth management business has not only driven scale expansion but has also played a substantive role in optimizing the liability structure and reducing funding costs.
Looking ahead to 2026, Chairman Fang Heying outlined the development path at the earnings conference: adjust the structure, consolidate strengths, enhance distinctive features, and focus on key areas. Specifically, the direction of "focusing on key areas" can be summarized as seeking growth from eight aspects: seeking growth from capital market business, seeking growth from cross-border finance, seeking growth from investment and trading capabilities, seeking growth from wealth management, seeking growth from risk resolution and recovery, seeking growth from new quality productive forces, new business formats, and new markets, seeking growth from scenario and ecosystem enrichment, and seeking growth from subsidiaries.
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