The six major state-owned banks will invest over 130 billion yuan in financial technology in 2025.

This article is reproduced from: Securities Daily

Six state-owned “big six” banks to invest over 130 billion yuan in financial technology in 2025

While increasing funding, they will continuously strengthen the team of technology professionals and ensure that technology investment truly converts into growth momentum

Our reporter Li Bing and Xiong Yue

As of March 31, the 2025 annual reports of the six major state-owned banks—Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and Postal Savings Bank—have all been released. As a “stabilizing force” serving the real economy, the operating performance of the six banks has achieved steady growth, and it has continued the main line of “increasing technology investment, deepening AI applications, and serving the real economy.” The combined scale of financial technology investment exceeds 130 billion yuan.

In terms of AI (artificial intelligence) technology deployment, state-owned major banks are committed to strengthening AI infrastructure, building an AI ecosystem, and promoting large-scale AI scenario applications, thereby driving improvements in business quality and efficiency and building core competitiveness.

Financial technology investment reaches a new high

In 2025, the operating performance of the six state-owned banks remained on a sound footing. Core indicators such as total assets, operating income, and net profit continued to improve, while they maintained high-intensity financial technology investment and continuously enhanced the role of a data-and-intelligence “core engine.”

In 2025, the total financial technology investment of the six state-owned banks exceeded 130 billion yuan, up further from 125.459 billion yuan in 2024. Both the scale and the effectiveness of funding improved in tandem. Among them, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s financial technology investment was 28.588 billion yuan, exceeding 20 billion yuan for five consecutive years and leading its peers; Agricultural Bank of China’s total information technology funding investment was 25.647 billion yuan; Bank of China’s financial technology investment (domestic regulatory scope) was 25.001 billion yuan, accounting for 3.80% of operating income; China Construction Bank’s financial technology investment was 26.722 billion yuan, accounting for 3.51% of operating income; Postal Savings Bank’s information technology investment was 11.791 billion yuan, accounting for 3.31% of operating income; and Bank of Communications’ financial technology investment was 12.342 billion yuan, up 6.81% year over year, accounting for 5.78% of operating income—making it the highest among the six.

Development in technology depends on talent. While increasing funding, the six state-owned banks have continuously expanded their teams of technology professionals, building a solid talent “moat” for technological innovation and scenario applications, and pushing technology investment to truly convert into development momentum.

By the end of 2025, the share of financial technology personnel at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China reached 9.8%; China Construction Bank had 30,085 digital finance personnel, accounting for 7.95% of the group’s headcount; Bank of Communications had 9,782 financial technology personnel, up 8.20% from the end of 2024, accounting for 9.99% of the group’s total employees; Postal Savings Bank had 7,414 technology personnel; and Bank of China had a total of 19,987 staff who serve as technology and digital operations administrators, accounting for 6.37%.

In Tian Lihui’s view, a professor of finance at Tianjin University, in 2025 the financial technology investment of state-owned major banks has entered a stage of “stable growth in total scale, optimized structure, and equal emphasis on quality and efficiency.”

“In 2025, the total scale of financial technology investment by the six state-owned banks grew steadily on a year-on-year basis, and the focus of investment has shifted from ‘emphasizing speed’ to ‘emphasizing quality and emphasizing returns.’” Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China, told reporters from Securities Daily. “At present, the investment directions of state-owned major banks generally focus on AI large models and computing power construction. The upgrade has moved from single-point technological innovation to a systematic layout integrating computing power, algorithms, and data platforms. Meanwhile, major banks continue to expand hiring of technology talent, enabling end-to-end intelligence across risk control, marketing, and operations, and they pay even more attention to building independent controllability and a secure governance system.”

Promoting digital transformation through AI applications

If sustained technology investment is the “backing” for the digital transformation of the six state-owned banks, then large-scale rollout of AI applications is the “core lever” for unlocking value release. In 2025, all six state-owned major banks used artificial intelligence as a lever for digital transformation. Technologies such as large models, intelligent agents, and digital employees have deeply penetrated business chains including lending, risk control, customer service, and wealth management, achieving a leap from “single-point applications” to “empowering the full domain,” and the results of AI applications have been significant.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China continues to lead in AI-related deployment. In 2025, the bank rolled out the “Leading AI+ Action” plan at the group level and built the 100-billion-parameter financial large model “ICBC ZhiYong,” supporting business applications with phased results. It has enabled the deployment of large models in more than 30 business areas across over 500 scenarios.

China Construction Bank has built an artificial intelligence application system. Large-model technology has been scaled up to empower 398 scenarios across the group. At the same time, it has deeply integrated AI technology into customer managers’ work processes and developed multiple domain-focused intelligent agents. Intelligent risk control has made the entire credit approval process AI-enabled, and an intelligent rating system has been launched, significantly improving the accuracy of risk identification.

Agricultural Bank of China has continued to optimize AI computing power, models, and scenario operations, building the “ABC Zhi+” platform for the whole bank to co-build, share, and reuse resources, and promoting large-scale “AI+” applications. It empowers business operation, risk management, and customer service across the industry through embedded, assistant-based, and intelligent-agent AI approaches.

Bank of China has fully implemented the “Artificial Intelligence+” action. It formulated the “Bank of China ‘Artificial Intelligence+’ Construction Plan,” and driven the bank’s data-and-intelligence transformation around “building platforms, consolidating data, promoting applications, preventing risks, and building mechanisms.” It has built more than 400 intelligent assistants to achieve deep empowerment in key areas such as credit, marketing, operations, office work, customer service, and technology.

In addition, Bank of Communications has deepened implementation of the “Artificial Intelligence+” action. It has already deployed over 2,500 AI intelligent agent assistants, widely covering key scenarios such as precision marketing and risk prevention and control, achieving a “double improvement” in operational efficiency and service quality. Postal Savings Bank’s AI capabilities have entered a 2.0 phase. Its large-model development covers more than 260 application scenarios across front-, middle-, and back-office areas, and provides 10 categories of 24 general AI capability offerings to each branch.

Recently, multiple state-owned major banks have convened concentrated meetings to explain their 2025 performance. Many executives of state-owned major banks said that this year, advancing AI in depth, through a system-based approach, and at scale remains a focus of work. For example, at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s 2025 performance briefing, Deputy Governor Zhao Guid(e) said that building a “digital-and-intelligent ICBC” is a key work priority for ICBC this year. The bank will continue to implement the “Leading AI+” action and focus on strengthening digital-and-intelligent momentum.

Tian Lihui said that current AI applications at state-owned major banks show three characteristics: first, large-scale AI computing power infrastructure provides a foundation for model training; second, talent structures are optimized; third, application scenarios are expanding from back-office areas such as risk control and marketing to deeper expansion into core business areas such as credit approval and wealth management.

As AI applications gradually enter a period of large-scale value release, the six state-owned banks face a series of new challenges and topics even as they reap technology dividends.

“Banks need to pay special attention to AI security issues when promoting AI technology applications, including data privacy protection and the risks posed by black and gray industry actors utilizing AI,” said Du Juan, senior researcher at the SuShang Bank Research Institute, in an interview with Securities Daily.