"The financial sector serves as the lifeblood of the modern economy. We aim for ICBC to provide various types of this lifeblood—type A, type B, and even some specialized types—and in sufficient quantity," stated Liu Jun, President of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Zhang Yi, President of China Construction Bank (CCB), emphasized his bank's commitment to "steadfastly promoting high-quality, connotative development." These remarks were delivered during the 2025 annual results briefings. Lin Li, Vice President of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), suggested that risk management capabilities will be the critical differentiator for commercial banks over the next two to three years.
It is evident that in the face of a complex and challenging operating environment, cost reduction and efficiency improvement have become key priorities for commercial banks. The large state-owned banks are increasingly highlighting the diversified and comprehensive advantages reflected in their report cards. In terms of profitability, the revenue and net profit growth of the six major banks showed an overall recovery last year. However, the growth rates varied significantly, with the lowest being ICBC's 0.74% and the highest being ABC's 3.18%. Under the new conditions, differences in income sources and cost structures among the banks are becoming more pronounced.
The disparity in profit growth rates widened in 2025. Collectively, the six major banks achieved operating revenue of 3.6 trillion yuan, an increase of approximately 82.5 billion yuan year-on-year, representing a growth rate of 2.34%. Their net profit attributable to parent company shareholders reached 1.42 trillion yuan, an increase of about 23.1 billion yuan year-on-year, equating to a growth rate of 1.65%.
Regarding individual banks, ICBC's revenue exceeded 800 billion yuan, nearing 838.3 billion yuan. CCB and ABC both reported revenues above 700 billion yuan, at approximately 761 billion yuan and 725.3 billion yuan, respectively. Bank of China (BOC) achieved revenue exceeding 600 billion yuan, around 658.3 billion yuan. In terms of net profit attributable to parent company shareholders, ICBC and CCB earned approximately 368.6 billion yuan and 338.9 billion yuan last year, respectively. ABC and BOC reported profits of about 291 billion yuan and 243 billion yuan, respectively.
Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) and Bank of Communications (BoCom) reported revenues of approximately 355.7 billion yuan and 265.1 billion yuan, respectively. However, BoCom demonstrated superior profitability efficiency, with net profits attributable to parent company shareholders of approximately 87.4 billion yuan and 95.6 billion yuan, respectively.
In absolute terms, all banks achieved record-high total profits despite the challenging environment. In recent years, evolving macro conditions, coupled with differences in institutional positioning and strategic focus at the micro level, have significantly influenced the pace of profit growth among the major banks.
In 2025, ABC again recorded the highest net profit growth rate among the six major banks at 3.18%, marking the sixth consecutive year it has led the "Big Four" in profit growth. ICBC recorded the lowest growth rate at 0.74%, maintaining a low growth rate below 1% for three consecutive years.
This divergence trend has intensified since 2022. Considering only the "Big Four" banks, the gap between the highest and lowest profit growth rates was 0.83 percentage points, 1.73 percentage points, and 2.01 percentage points for 2019-2021, respectively. From 2022 to 2025, this gap widened to 3.96, 3.12, 4.22, and 2.44 percentage points, respectively.
On the revenue front, following three consecutive years of negative revenue growth for ICBC and CCB from 2022 to 2024, all six major state-owned banks returned to positive revenue growth in 2025. BOC led with a growth rate of 4.48%, while CCB had the lowest at 1.88%. The other four banks recorded growth rates around 2%.
Net interest income, the traditional primary revenue source for banks, has yet to reach a turning point and remains under widespread pressure. Against this backdrop, the effectiveness of stabilizing net interest margins, the contribution of non-interest income, and the direction of operating cost control are key factors influencing the profitability of the major banks.
In 2025, the combined net interest income of the six major banks was 2.67 trillion yuan, accounting for approximately 74% of their operating revenue. This represents a decrease of nearly 3 percentage points from the previous year's 77%.
With the exception of BoCom, which maintained positive year-on-year growth in net interest income, the other five major banks experienced varying degrees of decline. CCB (-2.9%), ABC (-1.91%), and BOC (-1.83%) saw the most significant drops. Compared to 2024, the net interest income growth rates for ABC and PSBC turned negative last year, while BoCom's year-on-year growth narrowed. The year-on-year declines in net interest income for ICBC, CCB, and BOC moderated.
Against the backdrop of continued expansion in assets and liabilities, the growth rate and composition of interest-earning assets, along with the level of net interest margin, are crucial factors affecting net interest income. In their financial reports and performance briefings, bank managements cited cuts in the Loan Prime Rate (LPR) and changes in the term structure of deposits as primary reasons for the further decline in net interest margins. However, differences in asset-liability structures and strategies for stabilizing margins lead to varying degrees of fluctuation in this indicator.
In 2025, the net interest margins of the six major banks generally declined further. The smallest decrease was 0.07 percentage points (BoCom), while the largest was 0.21 percentage points (PSBC). Excluding these two, the other four major banks saw their rate of decline in net interest margins narrow to varying degrees, though the decreases generally remained above 0.14 percentage points.
Following this round of declines, the highest net interest margin among the major banks has fallen below 1.8%. PSBC maintained the highest level at 1.66%. The net interest margin of BoCom, the lowest among the group, dropped further to a low level of 1.2%.
Regarding strategies for stabilizing net interest margins, the analysis of average interest rates paid on general deposits versus average yields on loans indicates that the reduction in the former has not kept pace with the decline in the latter. Consequently, the scale of savings from lower deposit interest costs has been insufficient to offset the reduction in loan interest income. In this context, increasing interbank liabilities to leverage cost advantages under self-regulatory mechanisms has become one approach to reducing overall funding costs.
Within non-interest income, net fee and commission income remains the primary component. The recovery in capital markets in 2025 made this revenue stream a significant performance driver for the banking industry again. After a comprehensive decline across the six major banks in 2024, this income category achieved positive year-on-year growth for all last year.
ABC and PSBC, which benefit from strong retail customer bases, saw their net fee and commission income grow by over 16% each. Among the other four major banks, BOC recorded the highest growth in this category at 7.37%, while ICBC had the lowest at 1.62%.
Why is there such a significant disparity in the growth of net fee and commission income? The overall trend shows wealth management business providing upward momentum, while card and investment banking businesses act as drags. The performance of these business lines is closely tied to the macroeconomic environment. Top performers typically experience more robust growth in their key drivers or see their weaker segments achieve growth against the trend, while laggards experience the opposite, depending on each bank's business mix and strategic focus.
ABC benefited from a significant 87.8% surge in agency business revenue last year, driven by increased income from wealth management and fund distribution. However, revenue from advisory/consulting services and electronic banking fell by over 9% and 7%, respectively.
At ICBC, fees from corporate wealth management, and personal wealth management/private banking, grew by 19.4% and 7.2% year-on-year, respectively. Strong performance in pension services also helped drive a 21.5% increase in "other income." Nonetheless, revenue from card services and investment banking declined by 7.3% and 4.6%, respectively, affected by external factors like market changes.
Within CCB's fee and commission income, asset management revenue surged 78.78% year-on-year, fueled by growth in wealth management product and fund management fees. Agency business fees grew by 6.19%, supported by fund distribution and bond underwriting income. Conversely, the bank saw declines last year in card fees, custody/trustee commissions, and advisory/consulting fees.
The other three major banks exhibited more mixed or "reverse" trends across different indicators. PSBC's wealth management fee income grew by approximately 36% year-on-year. The bank also deepened its "commercial banking + investment banking" integrated operations, leading to nearly 39% growth in investment banking revenue against the trend. Supply chain finance, bills, guarantees, and letters of credit boosted other business fee income by nearly 29%, and custody fees also achieved double-digit growth. However, agency business revenue fell by 8.55%, and card business revenue decreased by 1.53%.
BOC saw a 26.67% year-on-year increase in agency business fee income, while its card fees grew against the trend by 6.76%. Credit commitment fees and foreign exchange trading spreads, which constitute smaller business volumes, declined by 8.41% and 3.86%, respectively. BoCom experienced declines exceeding 10% in both investment banking and payment/settlement business income. However, its wealth management and agency business revenues grew by approximately 17% and 10%, respectively, and card business revenue increased against the trend by 3.18%.
In recent years, facing pressure on traditional net interest income, an increasing number of banks have turned to treasury operations for profits. The benefits from the bond market have become more evident in financial reports. Although the scale may be limited, other non-interest income (excluding fee-based income) is gradually becoming an important growth driver. During this year's performance briefings, several senior executives from the major banks highlighted the importance of enhancing financial market analysis capabilities and optimizing the allocation of financial assets.
In 2025, ICBC and ABC both achieved over 20% growth in other non-interest income. PSBC's growth in this category was close to 20%, while BOC and CCB saw increases of nearly 30% and 50%, respectively.
Investment income was the primary contributor to this growth. CCB's investment income surged by over 129% in 2025. ICBC's investment income also rose by nearly 55%. PSBC and ABC both recorded investment income growth of around 40%, while BOC achieved an increase of nearly 30%. The investment income for these five major banks each exceeded 40 billion yuan last year, with ICBC recording the highest at approximately 63.3 billion yuan.
BoCom's investment income scale was relatively smaller, and its overall performance was weaker. Its investment income last year was around 24.4 billion yuan, a decrease of nearly 10% year-on-year. Net gains from changes in fair value also fell by nearly 65%. The bank attributed this primarily to reduced gains/losses on bonds and interest rate derivatives due to market rate fluctuations.
From an expenditure perspective, the supportive role of provision write-backs in a complex operating environment has been fully demonstrated among the major state-owned banks in recent years. However, as structural concerns regarding asset quality rise, banks are tending to further enhance their provision coverage capabilities.
In 2025, the six major banks ended several consecutive years of lower impairment provisions, increasing their provision charges by 23.743 billion yuan to a total of approximately 587.9 billion yuan. Looking back, from 2020 to 2024, the impairment provisions for the six major banks were approximately 789.5 billion yuan, 756.9 billion yuan, 684.4 billion yuan, 614.7 billion yuan, and 564.1 billion yuan, respectively. The year-on-year decrease in 2023 exceeded 10%.
With the exception of ABC, which continued to book 3.9 billion yuan less in provisions last year, the other five major banks increased their provision charges to varying degrees. CCB and ICBC increased their impairment provisions by approximately 12.4 billion yuan and 8.2 billion yuan year-on-year, respectively. PSBC and BoCom increased their provisions by around 4.5 billion yuan and 2.2 billion yuan, respectively.
Regarding business management expenses, the overall fluctuation in management costs for the six major banks last year was modest. The cost-to-income ratios for ICBC and ABC saw slight increases, while the ratios for the other four major banks decreased to varying degrees. In 2025, the cost-to-income ratios for ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB, and BoCom were 28.05%, 35.18%, 27.84%, 29.15%, and 29.3%, respectively. PSBC's ratio was significantly higher at 62.1%, influenced by its "self-operated + agency" business model.
Comments