Since taking the helm at CITIC Bank, Fang Heying has rarely made his external activity schedule public. As Chairman, he has focused more intently on managing the bank's internal affairs. The year 2025 proved to be an even busier one for Fang Heying. Initially, it was thought that following the resignation of the bank's former President, Liu Cheng, early in the year and the subsequent appointment of Lu Wei as President, Fang's workload might ease. However, Lu Wei submitted his resignation after just over eight months in the role. In late December 2025, CITIC Bank officially announced that Lu Wei had resigned from his positions as Executive Director, President, and Chairman and Member of the Board's Risk Management Committee due to work adjustments. Concurrently, Fang Heying was designated to temporarily assume the President's responsibilities. Fang Heying now shoulders the weight of the bank's two most critical roles. Entering 2026, Fang Heying also steps into a pivotal year as he turns 60. His resume indicates that Fang is an alumnus of the Class of 1987, majoring in Finance from Hunan College of Finance and Economics. He began his career as a teacher and later served as a credit officer at a urban credit cooperative, working his way up from the grassroots level. In 1996, Fang Heying joined CITIC Bank, successively holding positions such as Deputy General Manager and Deputy Head of the Hangzhou Branch, and later becoming the President of the Suzhou Branch. After 2013, he moved to the bank's headquarters, serving as Financial Markets Business Director, Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer. In March 2019, Fang Heying began serving as the bank's President and CFO. Then, in 2023, he succeeded Zhu Hexin as Chairman of CITIC Bank. In recent years, Fang Heying has led CITIC Bank in aggressively pursuing scale expansion. It took CITIC Bank two years to grow its assets from 9 trillion yuan to 10 trillion yuan. In 2023, CITIC Bank's total assets reached 9.052484 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.91%. By 2024, this asset base had expanded to 9.532722 trillion yuan, growing by 5.31% year-on-year. By 2025, CITIC Bank's total assets hit 10.13 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.28% from the end of the previous year, successfully entering the exclusive "10 Trillion Club." CITIC Bank's asset growth rate has consistently remained above 5%. However, the bank's profit growth has not kept pace. Comparing against its own performance, in 2024, CITIC Bank's revenue growth and net profit attributable to the parent company's shareholders growth were 3.76% and 2.33%, respectively. According to the latest performance forecast for 2025, CITIC Bank's total operating income was 212.475 billion yuan, a decrease of 0.55% compared to the previous year, while it achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company's shareholders of 70.618 billion yuan, an increase of 2.98% year-on-year, indicating profit growth without corresponding revenue growth.
When compared with its peers, although CITIC Bank's total assets are slightly higher than those of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), it has not entirely outperformed SPDB. SPDB, which also surpassed the 10 trillion yuan asset mark, reported growth rates for 2025 of 6.55% in total assets, 1.88% in revenue, and 10.52% in net profit attributable to parent company shareholders, all of which were higher than CITIC Bank's corresponding figures.
Beyond scale expansion, CITIC Bank now needs to place greater emphasis on improving efficiency and quality. Regarding asset quality, as of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank's non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.15%, down 0.01 percentage points from the end of the previous year, while its provision coverage ratio was 203.61%, a decrease of 5.82 percentage points from year-end 2024. Disclosed previously in the Q3 2025 report, the bank's liquidity coverage ratio was 127.6%, a significant drop of 90.53 percentage points from 218.13% at the end of the previous year.
In terms of capital replenishment, as of the end of the third quarter of 2025, CITIC Bank's core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 9.59%, down 0.13 percentage points from the end of the previous year. Its tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 11.03%, a decrease of 0.23 percentage points, and its total capital adequacy ratio was 13.01%, down 0.35 percentage points from the end of the prior year. Concerning compliance control, various branches of CITIC Bank have frequently received regulatory fines. In December 2025, CITIC Bank's Chengdu Branch was fined 2.3 million yuan by regulators for major violations, including "imprudent practices related to certain credit businesses, trade finance operations, bill operations, investment activities, and fee management." Additionally, four other branches—Donghu Sub-branch, Yibin Branch, Dazhou Branch, and Luzhou Branch—received combined fines totaling 2.5 million yuan. In the same month, CITIC Bank's Xinyang Branch was fined 550,000 yuan for violations such as inadequate due diligence in loan approvals, inspections, and post-lending monitoring, and the misappropriation of credit funds.
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