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Source丨Deep Blue Finance

On March 30, China Merchants Bank held its 2025 annual results press conference.

At the meeting, Chairman Miao Jianmin delivered an important speech on key topics such as the “moat,” core competitiveness, and corporate culture, and proposed: China Merchants Bank’s real moat is not the retail business or financial technology that outsiders are familiar with, but rather an “all customer-centric” corporate culture embedded deep in the bone, one concrete manifestation of which is that “China Merchants Bank employees rarely clock out on time.”

Miao Jianmin first explained the concept of “moat.”

He believes the essence of a moat is core competitiveness, meaning “stronger than others—and by a lot.” He acknowledged that in the past, many within China Merchants Bank viewed retail business and financial technology as the company’s moat, but that is not fundamental.

“The real moat of China Merchants Bank is to internalize the ‘customer-centric’ philosophy into corporate culture, and to translate it into employees’ everyday behavior.”

Miao Jianmin stressed that this is an important difference between China Merchants Bank and many other banks on the mainland.

He pointed out that whether it is business philosophy or technology application, ultimately it all depends on people to drive and implement it. Without this kind of culture as support—without cohesion and a spirit of professionalism and dedication—any other so-called moat will eventually collapse.

To make this abstract concept of culture more concrete, Miao Jianmin gave a vivid example. He said that after work hours, for instance, after 5 p.m. when you go to a China Merchants Bank branch, what you will find—different from other banks—is that China Merchants Bank employees rarely clock out on time.

In addition, he also mentioned an internal case: after the 2025 annual results were released, colleagues from the Office of the Board of Directors completed thick sets of materials for communications and exchanges with analysts and investors in just two days.

Miao Jianmin believes that this kind of efficient and dedicated working state is a concrete reflection of China Merchants Bank’s corporate culture

Miao Jianmin further pointed out that, around the philosophy of “customer-centric,” China Merchants Bank has built core competitiveness that includes talent, technology, and ecosystem.

He emphasized that as long as the culture of “customer-centric” does not change, China Merchants Bank’s moat will continue to exist; once this culture changes, other moats will gradually be weakened as well.

In the face of the current downturn cycle in the banking industry, Miao Jianmin said that although China Merchants Bank also faces performance fluctuations, it has always been able to outperform the broader market and do better than peers. The core reason lies in this deeply ingrained corporate culture.