How does CCB leap from physical infrastructure to system empowerment?

When the word “construction” is redefined by the times.

Author | beyond

Editor | Xiaobai

On March 27, China Construction Bank released its 2025 performance report: revenue of 761.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.9%; net profit of 339.79 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.04%; operating revenue of 740.87 billion yuan and pre-provision profit of 513.98 billion yuan, both showing a year-on-year growth of 1.7%; net interest margin of 1.34%, ROA of 0.79%, ROE of 10.04%, capital adequacy ratio of 19.69%, cost-to-income ratio of 29.44%, and non-interest net income proportion of 22.69%, with key indicators remaining balanced and coordinated, maintaining market leadership.

These numbers outline the robust character of a large state-owned bank. More noteworthy, however, is the logic behind the numbers.

“China Construction Bank was born out of national economic construction and flourished with economic development.” This statement by CCB Chairman Zhang Jinliang in the 2025 annual report address reveals the inherent mission of a bank named “Construction.” Standing at the historical juncture of the “14th Five-Year Plan” about to begin, as China’s economy transitions from high-speed growth to high-quality development, the connotation of “construction” is undergoing a profound leap from “physical building” to “system empowerment.”

Huatai Securities has given CCB a target PB of 0.86/0.66 for A/H shares in 2026, with target prices of 12.19 yuan/10.64 HKD for A/H shares, maintaining a “buy” rating.

(Source: Huatai Securities)

Unchanging foundation, moving towards the new

Looking back to 1954, when the name “China People’s Construction Bank” first appeared on the land of New China, its mission was clear and specific: to supervise the allocation of funds for national infrastructure investment. From the 156 key projects of the “First Five-Year Plan” to the subsequent thousands of large and medium-sized industrial projects, the name of CCB has been closely welded to the industrial backbone of the Republic. At that time, “construction” meant physical building with concrete and steel, laying the foundation of the industrial system.

In 2025, CCB’s cost consulting business revenue reached 2.3 billion yuan. This is a vivid reflection of CCB’s service to the national economic construction as well as a strong proof that its “core competency” remains intact and its traditional advantages continue to be consolidated. Through transformation and development, CCB has expanded in both traditional and new infrastructure areas—from railways, highways, airports, and water conservancy facilities to data centers, optoelectronics, and wind power in the new infrastructure sector, with the scope of engineering consulting services expanding from promoting engineering budget estimates to providing full-process engineering consulting services.

CCB has not stopped at merely upholding tradition. Seventy years later, as China’s economy transitions from high-speed growth to high-quality development, and as “new productive forces” become the core engine driving the future, the connotation of “construction” is undergoing a profound transformation. It is no longer just about building roads and bridges but also about technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and digital empowerment. From “physical construction” to “system construction,” from “scale expansion” to “value creation,” the times have put forth entirely new demands for “construction.”

CCB’s Party Committee has clearly stated that it will integrate its development into the national strategic layout, accurately find its positioning and take on its mission within the “five major articles.” “Striving to be a leading bank in technology finance” has been distinctly written into the development blueprint. This is not only a strategic shift in business focus but also a response to the contemporary connotation of “construction.”

This is no easy feat. It will undoubtedly be a transformation that requires both breaking and establishing, as well as a strategic journey that demands profound insight. For China Construction Bank, this means it must reassess its role and must break free from the traditional positioning as a “credit intermediary,” transforming into an “empowerment platform” capable of connecting value, integrating resources, and accompanying growth.

“The connotation of ‘construction’ has changed over different historical periods, but what remains unchanged is the original intention to serve national construction.” The management’s explanation marks the guiding star that will prevent this strategic journey from losing its direction.

Reconstructing service: The underlying logic of integrated operation

“The CCB Party Committee has clearly proposed to promote integrated operations of commercial banking and investment banking, public and private integration, domestic and foreign currency integration, and group integration. The logic behind these ‘four integrations’ is a profound re-examination of traditional organizational structures and operational models.” At the 2025 annual performance release, the CCB management’s strategic positioning on integrated comprehensive operational transformation clearly reveals the deep top-level logic behind its operational data.

If you walk into a traditional bank, you might feel some invisible “walls”: various departments operate independently without communication. However, as customer business models become increasingly complex and demands become more diverse, this fragmented service model becomes inadequate. For example, a technology company, from its initial stage of equity financing to its growth stage of credit support, and then to its mature stage of mergers and acquisitions and cross-border expansion, has needs that span multiple areas such as investment banking, commercial banking, cross-border, and asset management. If a bank continues to provide services from a “product perspective” rather than a “customer perspective,” it can only play a single role during a certain phase of the customer lifecycle and cannot become a long-term trusted partner.

CCB’s integrated transformation aims to break these physical barriers and achieve a complete shift from a “departmental bank” to a “process bank.” This is not a simple addition at the business level but a fundamental transformation of the service concept: from “what products I have” to “what customers need.”

The changes evidenced by performance data confirm the effectiveness of this transformation. In 2025, CCB’s net income from fees and commissions increased by 5.13%, and the proportion of non-interest income rose by 3.71 percentage points. Behind these changes in data lies a subtle optimization of the income structure.

As CCB President Zhang Yi stated at the performance release: “CCB deepens comprehensive services, and non-interest income contributions continue to rise. On the one hand, we consolidate traditional income such as payment and settlement, and on the other hand, we accelerate the cultivation of smart service capabilities, with stable growth in income from wealth management, asset management, and other fields. We strengthen market analysis, optimize investment strategies, and enhance trading capabilities, with the growth rates of exchange gains and equity investments both exceeding 40%.”

As the decline in net interest income shrinks quarter by quarter, non-interest income is becoming a new growth pole. Notably, CCB’s bond underwriting scale for non-financial enterprises increased by 85.85%, and the balance of merger loans grew by 24.01%. These numbers reflect CCB’s evolution from a “fund provider” to a “resource integrator.”

When a company needs to issue bonds for financing, CCB’s investment banking department can respond quickly; when it needs to acquire overseas targets, CCB’s cross-border team can facilitate seamless connections; when it needs to optimize its asset-liability structure, CCB’s asset management platform can provide customized solutions. This “one CCB” service capability breaks down not only the physical barriers between departments but also the psychological distance between banks and enterprises.

Deeper changes are occurring at the foundational level of service philosophy. Traditional banks tend to start “from the product”: whatever products they have, they push those to customers. The core of integrated operational transformation is to shift to “from the customer”: whatever customers need, we integrate resources to meet those needs.

This shift in perspective means that banks no longer see “selling products” as the endpoint but “solving problems” as the starting point; no longer guided by “short-term profits” but by “long-term value.”

In 2025, CCB’s domestic corporate loans and advances totaled 15.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.70%, with a total of 17.89 million RMB clearing accounts and serving 12.73 million corporate clients and 785 million individual clients.

Behind these numbers is CCB’s continued solidification of its customer base. The personal customer financial assets exceeding 23 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.41 trillion yuan over the previous year, reveal a clear trajectory of its transformation from a “transaction-oriented bank” to a “relationship-oriented bank.”

This is the first layer of connotation of CCB’s commitment to long-termism: centering on customers and reconstructing service logic.

Path of leap: Value companionship throughout the entire cycle

If the integrated operational transformation addresses the “how to serve” issue, then lifecycle service addresses the “how long to serve” issue.

The growth of technology enterprises has its unique timeline. From the flash of inspiration in the laboratory to repeated trial and error in the pilot stage, and then to the aggressive expansion of production capacity, its lifecycle is long, uncertain, and has diverse funding needs. Traditional three-year working capital loans simply cannot match this development rhythm. This is a deep-seated contradiction faced by banks when serving the real economy: the banks’ liabilities are short-term, while technology enterprises’ needs are long-term.

How to resolve this contradiction? CCB’s answer is to upgrade itself from a simple “credit intermediary” to an “empowerment platform” that covers the entire lifecycle of enterprises, providing diverse financial tools such as “investment, loans, bonds, leases, and insurance,” and dynamically combining and matching them according to the different stages of enterprise development needs.

In the startup phase, addressing the challenge of the “first mile.” For early projects that lack stable cash flow but have clear technological prospects, CCB has innovatively launched an “investment-loan linkage” model. By establishing equity investment funds through its financial asset investment company (AIC), it enters with “equity investment,” while providing “credit support.” This combination of “equity + debt” meets the equity funding needs of enterprises in their startup phase while ensuring liquidity for subsequent development. As of 2025, CCB has established 28 pilot funds for AIC equity investment, practicing the long-termism concept of “investing early, investing small, investing long-term, and investing in hard technology.”

In the growth phase, addressing the challenge of “risk-return matching.” CCB provides large-scale funding support in the form of “debt” through tools such as “science and technology notes” and “merger loans.” In 2025, CCB’s loans to the manufacturing industry grew by 15.83%, loans to strategically emerging industries increased by 23.46%, and the balance of technology loans exceeded 5 trillion yuan, with 71.984 billion yuan in underwriting science and technology bonds. For small and micro science and technology enterprises, CCB has launched exclusive products such as “Shanxin Loan” and “Shanke Loan,” with a loan balance exceeding 160 billion yuan and an increase of over 50%. By the end of 2025, CCB’s number of corporate clients and loan balances ranked among the top in the market.

In the mature phase, addressing the challenge of “global allocation.” CCB leverages its “domestic and foreign currency integration” and extensive global network to provide cross-border settlements, international syndicated loans, and global cash management services, assisting Chinese enterprises to “set sail overseas.” In 2025, CCB’s international business credit balance reached 1.45 trillion yuan, with cross-border RMB settlement volume at 6.50 trillion yuan, and the UK’s RMB clearing bank continued to maintain its position as the largest clearing bank outside Asia. These figures vividly illustrate its partnership with clients as they venture into the world.

More importantly, credit services are no longer “fighting alone,” but are coordinated with investment banks, securities firms, and industrial capital to introduce strategic investors, design equity incentive plans, and facilitate mergers and acquisitions along the upstream and downstream industrial chain, helping them grow stronger. This empowerment upgrade from “funds to resources” transforms CCB from merely a “lender” to a “value co-creator” capable of mobilizing various forces to jointly promote enterprise growth.

The deep logic explored by CCB in technology financial services is extending to broader fields. In 2025, CCB’s key areas in the financial “five major articles” all achieved double-digit growth: the balance of green loans reached 6 trillion yuan, with a growth rate of 20.54%; the balance of inclusive loans reached 3.83 trillion yuan, with a growth rate of 12.37%; loans to the elderly care and digital economy core industries grew by 53.06% and 18.70%, respectively. These data point to one fact: CCB is transforming the grand narrative of the financial “five major articles” into quantifiable and traceable business practices. They share the same underlying logic: centering on customers, making companionship a commitment, and value creation as a foundation.

This role transformation is the second layer of connotation of its commitment to long-termism: making companionship a commitment and sharing the growth cycle.

Digital foundation: Building a solid base for the future

Whether it is the “integrated” service model or the “full-cycle” companionship capability, both rely on a strong “digital foundation.” Without data, there is no way to gain insight into customer needs; without systems, it is difficult to achieve cross-departmental collaboration; without algorithms, it is impossible to proactively assess risks and values.

“CCB must accelerate the promotion of digital intelligence transformation, making it a key task during the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ period. Systematically and systematically advancing the ‘artificial intelligence+’ initiative is itself a manifestation of long-termism.” This assertion made by CCB’s management at the performance release reveals the core code for building future competitiveness.

From initiating the construction of a “new generation core system,” to establishing CCB Financial Technology, and then to the “artificial intelligence+” initiative, CCB’s investment in technology is like building a vast root system underground. By 2025, CCB has completed the distributed transformation of its core business system and continues to solidify its digital infrastructure foundation, with the total computing power of “CCB Cloud” increasing by 12.10%. The cumulative empowerment of artificial intelligence large models has reached nearly 400 application scenarios within the group.

In terms of computing power construction, CCB insists on moderate advancement, promoting the construction of high-availability and high-elasticity smart computing clusters in “four locations and five centers.” Over the past year, the computing power at the Daoxianghu Data Center has been further released, and progress at the new-type data centers in Hohhot and Gui’an New Area has been smooth, with intelligent computing power reaching 145.69 PFlops, up 24.52% from 2024.

In risk assessment, CCB is achieving a transition from “backward-looking” to “forward-looking.” Traditional banks evaluate corporate credit based on past financial statements and collateral. However, CCB is starting to deeply “portray” enterprises’ technological routes, R&D capabilities, and patent values using digital means such as “industry maps + technology large models,” forming a new “technology flow” evaluation system. The essence of this system is that it can identify high-quality enterprises that are “technologically capable, have potential, but lack collateral.” This is no longer a judgment based on past “report cards,” but rather a forecast based on the future “tracks” and “competitors.”

The effectiveness of this logic ultimately reflects in the sustained stability of asset quality: by the end of 2025, CCB’s non-performing loan ratio was 1.31%, a decrease of 0.03 percentage points from the end of the previous year; the proportion of loans under observation was 1.77%, down 0.12 percentage points from the end of the previous year, with a provision coverage ratio of 233.15%, stable compared to the previous year, and forward-looking risk indicators continuously improving, further widening the “moat” of asset quality.

In terms of service collaboration, CCB is achieving integration from “siloed” to “one integrated system.” The distributed transformation of the core business system enables unified integration of customer information, product services, and risk management on a single platform. When a client manager serves a technology company, they can retrieve all business information of that enterprise from across the bank, from loans to bond issuance, from domestic to international, from corporate business to personal business, achieving a true “one CCB” service experience. In 2025, the net profit of CCB’s overseas commercial banking institutions and comprehensive operational subsidiaries reached 21.488 billion yuan, and the synergistic effect of group integration is accelerating.

In terms of decision-making efficiency, CCB is evolving from “experience-driven” to “intelligence-driven.” Empowerment across 398 application scenarios, from intelligent risk control to precise marketing, from product design to investment research analysis, AI is becoming a key engine for improving decision quality and response speed.

With this solid digital foundation, CCB can transform the abstract strategy of “long-termism” into concrete, executable business actions. It is no longer satisfied with being a “bystander” or “follower” of economic cycles but aims to leverage technology to discover value earlier, allocate resources more precisely, and integrate more deeply into industries, becoming a “participant” and “promoter” of value creation.

The ultimate test of all this lies in the quality of operational results. While maintaining steady growth, CCB always pays attention to sharing development results with investors: in 2025, the annual cash dividend is 3.887 yuan per 10 shares (tax included), with a total dividend of about 101.684 billion yuan, maintaining a cash dividend ratio of 30%; over the 20 years since its share reform listing, it has distributed dividends exceeding 1.3 trillion yuan, and with this final dividend, the cumulative dividend will exceed 1.4 trillion yuan.

This set of data is the most direct manifestation of CCB’s commitment to long-termism: it pursues not only current profits but also sustainable value creation; not only its own growth but also a win-win with shareholders, customers, and society.

This is the third layer of connotation of its commitment to long-termism: using technology as the root to build capabilities for the future; prioritizing value to achieve sustainable win-win development.

Conclusion: The essence of finance is construction

Returning to the opening question: when the connotation of “construction” is redefined by the times, how should a bank named “Construction” position itself?

The strategic vision of CCB’s management and the vibrant practices across the bank together provide a profound answer: it is shifting the focus of “construction” from tangible physical infrastructure to intangible value creation; shifting the anchor of credit from static collateral to dynamic technology and people; and shifting the boundaries of service from short-term credit transactions to long-term companionship and growth.

The performance data of 2025 is a phase marker of this transformation. However, more importantly than these numbers is the logical context behind the data: under the clear top-level design of CCB’s Party Committee, CCB is transforming from a “credit intermediary” to an “empowerment platform,” evolving from a “departmental bank” to a “process bank,” and leaping from “backward-looking” risk assessment to “forward-looking” value discovery.

Seventy years of immense change have seen the connotation of the word “construction” continuously evolve. Now, as the country embarks on a new journey of Chinese-style modernization, the focus of construction is shifting towards new productive forces and achieving high-level technological self-reliance. CCB is committed to truly responding to the essence of “construction” through integrated comprehensive operations, a digital transformation foundation, and a commitment to long-termism. This may well be the most profound significance of CCB’s transformation.

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