ICBC President Liu Jun: We must find our own path in new quality productive forces and other fields.

A reporter for 每经｜Zhang Shoulin    Editor for 每经｜Chen Junjie

On the evening of March 27, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) disclosed its 2025 operating results. Operating revenue exceeded 800 billion yuan. Non-interest income grew 11.8%, while net profit exceeded 370 billion yuan, up 1.0%.

At the day’s results briefing, ICBC President Liu Jun stated that going forward, if ICBC’s balance sheet remains primarily a loan-driven statement, it may still be some distance from the goal of becoming a world-class financial institution. This requires that, on the basis of a balance sheet mainly supported by indirect financing, ICBC should fully intensify efforts to build a modern financial services industry. In the areas of new quality productive forces and new-type infrastructure, ICBC must chart its own path.

Other non-interest income increased by 22.6%

“We have not eased our pursuit of efficiency or our pursuit of quality because ICBC is large in terms of its own scale.” Looking back on 2025, Liu Jun said that it continued to move along a trend that was heading in a favorable direction.

Liu Jun summed up that ICBC’s operating performance in 2025 improved steadily in both quality and efficiency, and its earnings resilience was further strengthened.

For all of 2025, ICBC achieved operating revenue of 801.4 billion yuan, up 1.9%. “In an environment where the interest spread is gradually narrowing, achieving such a positive growth target is, to some extent, difficult.” Liu Jun analyzed the income structure, pointing out that net interest income continued to play the role of the core base for operating revenue, which is highly consistent with China’s social financing structure dominated by indirect financing.

ICBC’s net interest margin in 2025 was 1.28%, down 14 basis points from the beginning of the year. “But everyone must pay attention: the magnitude of the decline narrows quarter by quarter, showing a trend of stabilization,” he said.

Net fee and commission income was 111.2 billion yuan, up 1.6%, reversing the negative growth trend ahead of it. Other non-interest income was 91.973 billion yuan, an increase of 16.972 billion yuan, up 22.6%, providing strong support for revenue growth.

Overall, Liu Jun said that ICBC has further improved the stability, balance, and sustainability of its earnings growth.

By the end of 2025, ICBC’s group-level total assets were 5.348 trillion yuan, making it the first bank globally to have total assets exceeding 5 trillion yuan. Onshore RMB loans increased by 217 billion yuan from the beginning of the year to 2.92 trillion yuan, an 8% rise. RMB bond investments increased by 267 billion yuan, reaching a fresh high.

Beyond the total amounts, Liu Jun noted that ICBC places greater emphasis on optimizing the structure and timing of loan deployment. The balance of loan issuance in 2025 reached 67%, up 3.6 percentage points year over year. In key areas such as manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, green finance, and inclusive finance, growth remained relatively fast, and the role of large banks as the main force in serving the real economy was brought into strong play.

On the asset quality front, by the end of 2025, ICBC’s group-level non-performing loan ratio was 1.31%, down 3 basis points from the beginning of the year. It has remained on a downward trend for 5 consecutive years. At year-end, the loan loss reserve balance was 852.3 billion yuan, up 36.8 billion yuan from the beginning of the year, an increase of 4.5%, further enhancing risk coverage capacity.

Liu Jun said ICBC is improving provisions to better prepare for and soften the impact brought by the macroeconomic cycle in the next phase. At the same time, it is also advancing the construction of an enterprise-level intelligent risk control platform.

Building a World-Class Financial Institution

Looking ahead to 2026’s key priorities, Liu Jun mentioned three points. First, advance the building of a world-class financial institution. On the basis of a balance sheet dominated by indirect financing, we should fully concentrate on building a modern financial services industry. We need to shift from being a mere intermediary of funds to a comprehensive service provider of a range of value elements such as capital, information, and efficiency.

“So our first goal is to actively expand integrated services,” Liu Jun said. This requires that non-commercial business lines play an important pillar role. At the same time, we will build modern financial services segments, integrating full-lifecycle services with end-to-end services across the entire industrial chain, and establishing a matrix of financial services that is three-dimensional, systematic, and intelligence-driven. Focusing on key areas such as building a modern industrial system, technological innovation, green transformation, and coordinated regional development, we will strengthen multi-business coordination and linkage among commercial banking, investment banking, asset management, custody, wealth management, trading, and settlement, so as to build comprehensive solutions for customers and convert our strong supply capabilities into value-creation capabilities.

Liu Jun analyzed that the capital market may assign higher valuations to the modern financial services industry, which also requires ICBC to be the first among Chinese financial institutions to blaze a new trail—organically combining a balance sheet dominated by indirect financing with modern financial services to achieve the goal of building a world-class financial institution.

Second, strengthen global integrated operations. Leveraging its global network advantages and the foundation of integrated operations across both domestic and foreign currencies, it will promote further upgrades to global resource allocation capabilities and cross-border financial services capabilities. While connecting to broader markets and serving larger ecosystems, it will cultivate endogenous driving forces for high-quality financial development. In particular, by centering on upgrading products and services related to the internationalization of the RMB, it will improve a comprehensive, all-round service system including RMB-denominated pricing, trading, settlement, clearing, investment, financing, repurchase agreements, and asset management, and strive for breakthroughs in key areas such as cross-border finance and offshore finance. It will extend ICBC’s RMB transaction pricing advantages from within the country to overseas, helping enhance the international influence of RMB pricing.

Third, continuously enhance data-and-intelligence-driven momentum. Liu Jun said that ICBC is strong in technology, having built a series of centralized systems, and is continuously iterating and upgrading them, so that system support for business can cover everything, support in every dimension, and operate in diversified ways.

Cover image source: Li Yuwen