Revenue and net profit both decline! The 7 trillion-yuan joint-stock bank responds!

On March 31, the Industrial Bank of Everbright held its 2025 annual performance briefing.

While the bank’s total assets have crossed the 70 trillion yuan mark, the results it delivered for 2025 are somewhat heavy: both operating revenue and net profit fell, the non-performing loan ratio edged up, and pressure on the net interest margin remains unresolved……

It is not hard to see that, facing performance pressure, the Industrial Bank of Everbright has already gone all in, “tightening its belt” to get through tough days: in response to its performance, management said the bank alleviated downward pressure on profit through strengthening cost management and control; full-year operating expenses decreased by 8.9%, with the decline rate larger than that of revenue.

“2026 will be a year for my bank to consolidate its foundation. We will adhere to differentiated development, build distinctive advantages, increase revenue, control costs, strengthen risk control, enhance related resource support, and drive a stabilization and rebound in our profitability.” Management of the Industrial Bank of Everbright said.

New momentum urgently needed in the revenue fundamentals

In 2025, the Industrial Bank of Everbright achieved operating revenue of 126.31 billion yuan, down 6.72% year over year; it achieved net profit of 39.14 billion yuan, down 6.61% year over year. Looking at a longer time span horizontally, the bank’s revenue has gone through a “fourth consecutive decline.”

Data: Wind

Management of the Industrial Bank of Everbright attributed the 2025 revenue decline to three factors: first, net interest margin moving downward, constraining the growth of interest income; second, other income declined on a phased basis, affected by the significant downward move in bond market interest rates; third, it increased efforts to resolve related business risks and accelerate operational transformation, resulting in phased pressure on credit card interest and fee income.

Among these, interest income—the main component—last year saw a decline approaching 10%, down 9.76% year over year to 211.158 billion yuan; the primary drag was interest income from loans and advances, which fell 11.34%.

The data show that, as of the end of 2025, the Industrial Bank of Everbright’s total assets had already exceeded 70 trillion yuan, reaching 71,653.19 billion yuan, up 2.96% from the end of the prior year. Of this, the total amount of loans and advances was 39,802.12 billion yuan, up 1.18%.

Breaking down the bank’s asset structure, one key indicator declined: the proportion of loans and advances in total assets fell by 0.98 percentage points to 55.55%. Weakening in the interest-earning asset structure not only reflects insufficient momentum on the credit deployment side, but also directly affects profitability. The data show that, as of the end of 2025, affected by factors such as the decline in asset yield ratio, the bank’s net interest spread fell by 13 basis points to 1.32%, and its net interest margin also declined year over year.

However, in 2025, the Industrial Bank of Everbright continued to make strong efforts in distinctive businesses such as wealth management and transaction banking, building a new growth engine for business, supporting growth in fee-based business income and providing effective backing for revenue.

The data show that in 2025, the bank’s net fee and commission income was 20.252 billion yuan, up 6.19% year over year; among this, fee income from wealth management services grew by more than 61% year over year. At the performance briefing, the bank’s management said that through a range of measures to increase revenue and create profit, revenue contributions from distinctive businesses such as wealth management and Jiao Yin (交银) increased, and in the fourth quarter last year the bank’s operating revenue decline narrowed by 4.99 percentage points compared with the first three quarters.

A glimmer of hope for stable net interest margin

With pressure on asset-side yield ratios across the board, how to narrow the decline in net interest margin has become a common industry challenge. As of last year-end, the Industrial Bank of Everbright’s net interest margin was 1.40%, down 14 basis points from the end of the previous year and flat with the level at mid-year.

Overall, the industry’s “net interest margin defense war” has begun to show signs of hope. Wnd data indicate that as of April 1, among 22 A-share listed banks that have disclosed annual report data, including RuiFeng Bank, CITIC Bank, and YN Rural Commercial Bank, several banks kept their fourth-quarter net interest margin stable quarter over quarter, and some even rebounded against the trend.

To maintain a steady net interest margin level, the Industrial Bank of Everbright has also chosen to work on the liability side.

At the performance meeting, Hao Cheng, President of the Industrial Bank of Everbright, said that last year the bank worked hard to reduce funding costs and improve their quality on the liability side. Through initiatives such as “cash management, chain-based customer acquisition, and qualified special accounts,” it optimized the liability structure, improved liability quality, and improved funding costs. As of the end of December 2025, the bank’s deposit interest expense ratio was 1.81%, down 37 basis points from the previous year.

However, amid the trend of deposits becoming more time-based and longer-term, lowering the cost of core liabilities—and improving current deposits in particular—is especially critical. From annual report data, by the end of 2025, the Industrial Bank of Everbright’s balances and shares of retail and corporate demand deposits both declined. Among them, the balance of corporate demand deposits fell 7.97% year over year.

Hao Cheng said that in the next stage, the Industrial Bank of Everbright will leverage the advantages of a joint-stock bank that is “small, fast, and flexible,” strengthen integrated operations, keep the net interest margin stable, increase the contribution from fee-based businesses, promote cost reduction and revenue increase, and drive steady growth in revenue.

Asset quality draws attention

During the interactive Q&A session at the performance briefing, an investor asked questions about the Industrial Bank of Everbright’s provision coverage and asset quality.

The data show that as of the end of December 2025, the Industrial Bank of Everbright’s balance of non-performing loans was 50.742 billion yuan, up 1.49 billion yuan from the end of the previous year. The non-performing loan ratio was 1.27%, up 0.02 percentage points from the end of the previous year. The provision coverage ratio was 174.14%, down 6.45 percentage points from the end of the previous year.

Ma Bo, Chief Risk Officer of the Industrial Bank of Everbright, responded that in the fourth quarter of 2025 the bank increased its provisioning efforts, focusing mainly on retail business. “In the current real estate sector, the market environment has not shown any obvious improvement. As a result, the risk pressure on retail loans—especially real-estate-related loans—is relatively high.”

The annual report shows that last year, the Industrial Bank of Everbright increased efforts to manage and control risks in retail credit assets. Using localized operations as the starting point, it advanced the prevention and resolution of credit card risks. By the end of last year, the bank achieved cash recoveries of 40.508 billion yuan.

When discussing asset quality, Qi Ye, Vice President of the Industrial Bank of Everbright, said that last year overall asset quality was controllable. Risk prevention and control in key areas of the corporate segment achieved positive results. “We increased the clearance of incremental real estate stock risks and advanced platform-based debt resolution in a steady and orderly manner, and implemented rollovers without principal repayment for small and micro enterprises. We actively took measures such as concentration ratio control, large-scale look-through reviews, early-warning monitoring, and proactive exit, strengthening active management of existing assets.”

Layout: Yang Yu Cheng

Proofreading: Gao Yuan