China CITIC Bank releases 2025 annual report: Resilience of value banking demonstrated

(Source: Economic Daily)

Reprinted from: Economic Daily

On March 23, CITIC Bank held its 2025 Annual Performance Release Conference in Beijing. Management discussed the 2025 performance report data, answering analysts’ and media’s questions on strategic planning, interest rate spreads, asset quality, and other hot topics, elaborating on the bank’s “balanced, steady, sustainable” growth logic.

During the reporting period, CITIC Bank achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 70.618 billion yuan, up 2.98% year-over-year; operating income was 212.475 billion yuan, down 0.55% year-over-year; of which, net interest income was 144.469 billion yuan, down 1.51%, and non-interest net income was 68.006 billion yuan, up 1.55%. By the end of the reporting period, CITIC Bank’s total assets surpassed 10 trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 101.31028 trillion yuan, a 6.28% increase from the end of last year; total loans and advances were 5.862172 trillion yuan, up 2.48%; total customer deposits were 6.049275 trillion yuan, up 4.69%. During the period, CITIC Bank fully intensified targeted support for the real economy, with growth rates in key sector loans significantly outperforming overall loan growth.

In 2025, CITIC Bank maintained strategic focus, firmly promoted implementation, and continued to deepen around “wealth management, comprehensive financing, transaction settlement, foreign exchange services, and digitalization,” taking solid and powerful steps forward. Adhering to customer and value orientation, retail managed asset balances grew by 14.29%, and corporate wealth management scale surpassed 300 billion yuan. Driven by the “Banking + Investment Banking + Collaboration + Matching” four-wheel drive, comprehensive financing balances increased by 5.41%, with bond underwriting and capital market business continuing to lead among peers. The self-developed “Xiao Tian Yuan” platform and “Tian Yuan Treasury” system are deeply embedded in customer transaction scenarios; the bank continuously enhances transaction settlement comprehensive service capabilities, with transaction counts and amounts increasing by 16.30% and 9.86% year-over-year, respectively. A cross-border financial center was established, with cross-border loan balances exceeding 130 billion yuan, a 59.94% increase, ranking among the top in joint-stock banks; customer foreign exchange buy/sell volume increased by 10.17%, reaching a recent high. The bank launched and smoothly operated the largest system cluster—Corporate Business System Cluster (Galaxy), achieving full-process business reengineering and core technology breakthroughs in corporate credit. Innovative achievements such as “CITIC Easy Loan” have been scaled and empowered across business scenarios.

In the face of the wave of global financial technology transformation, CITIC Bank is steadfastly advancing its technology-driven strategy, insisting on innovation-led development and deep integration of business, technology, and data, using informatization, datafication, and intelligence as pathways to build new digital competitive advantages. During the reporting period, CITIC Bank invested 9.641 billion yuan in information technology, accounting for 4.54% of operating income. By the end of the period, the bank had 5,807 technology personnel, representing 8.79% of total staff. The bank’s technological innovation vitality continues to be released, with a total of 496 patents granted, a 36.26% increase from the end of last year.

The report shows that by 2025, the bank will improve its multi-scenario inclusive financial standardized product system, launching over 20 standardized products such as “Order e-Loan” and “Sci-Tech Innovation e-Loan” for startups, creating new products like “Logistics e-Loan - Car Insurance Installments,” and adding government procurement-related digital currency modes. The online financing volume reached 66.8 billion yuan for the year. Utilizing cutting-edge AI technologies like large and small models, the bank has solidified its service technology foundation. The digital wealth advisor “Xiao Xin” has served over 7.91 million customers, significantly improving customer service quality and efficiency. The bank has improved its embedded inclusive finance risk control system, upgrading to Digital Risk Control 3.0, automating model and rule revalidation, and strengthening monitoring of potential risk customers, maintaining asset quality at a good level.

When asked by this reporter how to excel in the “Five Major Articles” of finance, Vice President Gu Lingyun stated that in practice, CITIC Bank increasingly recognizes that doing well in the “Five Major Articles” of finance is not a multiple-choice question but a required answer. Evidence fully proves that steadily advancing along this path strengthens the foundation and boosts momentum. CITIC Bank regards the “Five Major Articles” as a top priority, allocating more financial resources to the core areas of building a modern economic system. In terms of technological finance, focusing on loan issuance and system construction, the bank has comprehensively improved service quality, with the balance of technological loans reaching 1.0729 trillion yuan, up 14.75%. Green finance has completed the listing of the first batch of green demonstration and specialty institutions, launched the “Xin Carbon Tong” green low-carbon service platform, with green loans exceeding 750 billion yuan, up 24.83%, and green bond underwriting scale growing by over 60% year-over-year. Inclusive finance, rooted in people’s livelihoods, deeply integrates micro and small enterprise financing coordination mechanisms, with inclusive micro and small enterprise loans reaching 644.306 billion yuan, up 7.42%. Pension finance continues to optimize the “Finance + Non-Finance” service system, with pension industry loans doubling, corporate annuity custody scale ranking among joint-stock banks, and individual pension account openings increasing by over 34% from the end of last year. Digital finance actively builds a “digital community” where finance, digital livelihoods, and digital industries are closely integrated, with core digital economy industry loans totaling 246.782 billion yuan, an 18.92% increase. (Reported by Yu Yong, Economic Daily)