"Retail Foundation-Building, Corporate Banking Filling the Gap" Path Clarified, Ping An Bank President Ji Guangheng: Transformation Not Complete, Hardest Period Has Passed

Ask AI · How will Ping An Bank overcome interest margin pressure and return to growth by 2026?

Cailian Press, March 23 (Reporter Liang Kezhi) In a market environment characterized by low interest rates and weak demand, Ping An Bank delivered a “pressure but not stalled” performance report for 2025.

At the March 23 earnings release, management led by President Ji Guangheng emphasized that the most difficult operating cycle for Ping An Bank has passed, and in 2026, the bank will make every effort to return to the growth track.

Ping An Bank’s 2025 annual report shows that during the reporting period, the bank achieved operating income of 131.442 billion yuan, down 10.4% year-on-year; net profit was 42.633 billion yuan, down 4.2% year-on-year.

“2025 was a year of extreme operational pressure, but also a key year for laying a solid foundation for the future,” said President Ji Guangheng at the earnings meeting. As strategic reforms deepen, the path for retail business to bottom out and corporate business to fill gaps is becoming clearer, but the transformation is not yet complete.

Retail Business Stabilizes, Scale Declines Temporarily

Data shows that Ping An’s retail business in 2025 exhibited typical features of “proactive contraction and risk cleanup”: by the end of 2025, Ping An Bank’s personal loan balance was 1.73 trillion yuan, down 2.3% year-on-year, still in a contraction phase amid industry-wide pressure; retail business operating income declined year-on-year, but impairment losses decreased significantly, driving profit recovery in the sector.

Behind this change is the ongoing risk cleanup and customer restructuring over the past two years.

“We actively exited high-risk customer groups and absorbed existing risks, leading to a temporary scale decline. This adjustment is now basically complete,” Ji Guangheng said.

Structurally, mortgage loans in retail loans increased to 62.9%, with asset quality significantly improved; personal loan non-performing rate fell to 1.23%, down 0.16 percentage points from the previous year. Meanwhile, high-yield but volatile businesses like credit cards and consumer loans are still in recovery, with credit card circulation accounts reaching 43.6931 million and consumption amounting to 2.01 trillion yuan, with growth slowing.

On the other hand, the “second growth curve” for retail—wealth management—saw fee income of 5.061 billion yuan, up 15.8%; among them, income from agency personal insurance was 1.292 billion yuan, up 53.3%.

Structural highlights continue to emerge. AUM driven by payroll and bulk business increased by 19.3% year-on-year; the contribution of new wealth clients from comprehensive financial services accounted for over 50%, becoming an important customer acquisition channel.

However, the retail customer base remains flat. By the end of 2025, Ping An Bank’s retail AUM was 4.24 trillion yuan, up 1.1% year-on-year, with growth significantly slowing; private banking clients’ AUM approached 2 trillion yuan, but only grew slightly year-on-year.

For the next steps in retail, Ji Guangheng stated that the bank will “deepen the promotion of integrated income credit banking, strengthen the bank insurance wealth banking, and build low-cost digital banking”; promote the volume and efficiency of fee-based products on the asset side; fully reduce interest expense on liabilities; and leverage Ping An Group to deepen full lifecycle management of individual clients.

“Corporate Filling” Faces Intensified Industry Competition

Contrasting with retail contraction, corporate business became the main “incremental source” for Ping An Bank in 2025.

The annual report shows that by the end of 2025, corporate loans totaled 1.66 trillion yuan, up 3.5% year-on-year, with general corporate loans increasing by 9.2%, approaching double digits; the number of corporate clients increased by 13.2% to 966,000.

In terms of sectors, the bank clearly tilted toward policy-oriented areas. Loans in technology finance, green finance, and manufacturing saw good growth, with green loans up 12.2% year-on-year and technology loans up 9.8%.

Meanwhile, supply chain finance and cross-border business expanded rapidly, with total supply chain financing nearly 2 trillion yuan, up 23.1%; cross-border trade financing grew by 30.1%.

However, the “filling” of corporate business by Ping An Bank has not come without costs.

On one hand, industry competition has intensified significantly. Amid overall weak credit demand, banks are competing fiercely for quality assets. Ji Guangheng admitted, “Currently, all banks are increasing their corporate business deployment, and competition is becoming more intense.”

On the other hand, asset quality pressures are beginning to show. In 2025, the corporate loan non-performing rate was 0.87%, still low but up 0.17 percentage points from the previous year. The annual report acknowledged that risks in key areas like real estate still require ongoing attention.

At the earnings meeting, Ping An Bank’s management indicated that they expect asset quality to remain stable in 2026, with a continued decline in non-performing loan creation and creation rate.

Will 2026 Return to Growth?

With a clear path for retail bottoming out and corporate filling, Ping An Bank emphasizes once again “emerging from the pain of transformation and returning to the growth track.”

Looking at the annual report, the first issue is interest margin pressure. In 2025, net interest margin fell to 1.78%, down 9 basis points year-on-year. Although the decline narrowed, it remains low. By reducing liability costs, the bank lowered the interest paid on deposits by 42 basis points for the year, partially offsetting the decline in asset yields, but the room for improvement is shrinking.

Second, income structure faces pressure. Non-interest net income declined 18.5% year-on-year, with wealth management and investment trading businesses experiencing increased market-driven volatility, indicating that the fee-based system has yet to establish stable support.

“The most difficult operating period is over,” Ji Guangheng conveyed positive signals at the earnings meeting, and explicitly set the goal for 2026 to “return to growth.” Specifically, the bank will “focus on core business areas, accelerate the pace of high-quality credit deployment, stabilize deposit growth, and achieve positive cycles in volume, price, and risk, striving to re-enter the growth track.”