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

Reporter Li Bing, Xiong Yue

By March 31, the 2025 annual reports for six major state-owned banks—including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and Postal Savings Bank of China—had all been fully disclosed. As the “stabilizing weight” serving the real economy, the six major banks have achieved steady growth in their operating performance, and have continued along the main line of “increasing technology investment, deepening AI applications, and serving the real economy.” Total financial technology investment exceeds 130 billion yuan.

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

Financial technology investment hits a new high

In 2025, the operating performance of the six major state-owned banks remained steady and positive. Key indicators such as total assets, operating income, and net profit continued to improve. At the same time, they maintained high-intensity financial technology investment and continuously strengthened the role of the data-intelligent core engine.

In 2025, the total financial technology investment of the six major state-owned banks exceeded 130 billion yuan, up further from 125.459 billion yuan in 2024. Both the scale of capital investment and the effectiveness of capital investment rose in tandem. Among them, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s financial technology investment was 28.588 billion yuan, exceeding 200 billion yuan for five consecutive years and leading its peers. Agricultural Bank of China’s information technology capital investment totaled 25.647 billion yuan. Bank of China’s financial technology investment (domestic regulatory basis) 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 of China’s information technology investment was 11.791 billion yuan, accounting for 3.31% of operating income. Bank of Communications’ financial technology investment was 12.342 billion yuan, up 6.81% year over year, accounting for 5.78% of operating income—the highest among the six major banks.

Technology development advances, and talent is the foundation. While increasing funding, the six major state-owned banks have continued to strengthen their technology talent teams, building a solid talent “moat” for technological innovation and scenario applications, so that technology investment truly turns into development momentum.

By the end of 2025, the proportion of financial technology personnel at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China reached 9.8%. At China Construction Bank, there were 30,085 digital finance personnel, accounting for 7.95% of the group’s total headcount. At Bank of Communications, there were 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 of China had 7,414 technology personnel. Bank of China employed a total of 19,987 technology and digital operations administrators, accounting for 6.37%.

In the view of Tian Lihui, a professor of finance at Nankai University, in 2025, financial technology investment by state-owned 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 major state-owned banks will increase steadily year over year. The investment focus has shifted from ‘emphasizing speed’ to ‘emphasizing quality, prioritizing efficiency, and emphasizing benefits.’” Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China, told reporters from 《Securities Daily》. “At present, the investment directions of state-owned banks generally focus on AI large models and computing power construction. They are shifting from upgrading single-point technological innovation to a systematic layout integrating computing power, algorithms, and data platforms. Meanwhile, major banks continue to expand their recruitment of technology talent, enabling end-to-end intelligence across risk control, marketing, and operations. They also place greater emphasis on building independently controllable capability and a security governance system.”

Using AI applications to drive digital transformation

If sustained technology investment is the “backing” for the digital transformation of the six major state-owned banks, then the large-scale rollout of AI applications is the “core lever” for releasing value. In 2025, all six major state-owned banks used artificial intelligence as a driver for digital transformation. Technologies such as large models, intelligent agents, and digital employees have deeply permeated business chains including lending, risk control, customer service, and wealth management, enabling a leap from “single-point applications” to “enterprise-wide empowerment,” with notable results from AI applications.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China continues to lead in AI-related deployment. In 2025, the bank implemented the “Navigator AI+ Action” plan at the group level and built the 100 billion-parameter financial large model “ICBC Zhi Yong,” supporting phased success in business applications. It has promoted the large model across 30-plus business domains into 500-plus scenarios.

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

Agricultural Bank of China has continued to optimize AI computing power, models, and scenario operations, and has built the “ABC Zhi+” platform for the whole bank to jointly build, share, and reuse. It promotes large-scale “AI+” applications, empowering business operations, risk management, and customer service across the industry through embedded, assistant-style, and intelligent-agent AI methods.

Bank of China has comprehensively implemented the “Artificial Intelligence+” action, and formulated the 《Bank of China “Artificial Intelligence+” Construction Plan》, driving the group’s data-intelligent transformation around “building platforms, consolidating data, promoting applications, preventing risks, and building mechanisms.” It has built more than 400 intelligent assistants and achieved deep empowerment in key areas including credit, marketing, operations, office work, customer service, and technology.

In addition, Bank of Communications has advanced the “Artificial Intelligence+” action in depth. It has already deployed more than 2,500 AI intelligent agent assistants, broadly covering key scenarios such as precise marketing and risk prevention and control, achieving improvements in both operating efficiency and service quality. Postal Savings Bank of China’s AI capabilities have entered the 2.0 stage. The bank’s large-model construction covers more than 260 application scenarios across front-, middle-, and back-office areas, and it provides each branch with 10 categories of 24 general AI capability options.

Recently, state-owned banks held concentrated briefings on their 2025 annual performance. Many management teams said that advancing AI toward greater depth, systematic, and large-scale applications will remain the focus of work this year. For example, at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s 2025 annual performance release conference, Vice President Zhao GuidE said that building “Digital-Intelligence ICBC” is this year’s key work for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The bank will continue to implement the “Navigator AI+” action and focus on strengthening the drivers of data-intelligent momentum.

Tian Lihui said that at present, AI applications at state-owned banks show three characteristics: first, large-scale AI computing power infrastructure provides a foundation for model training; second, talent structure is optimized; and third, application scenarios have advanced from back-office links such as risk control and marketing to deeper deployment in core business areas such as credit approval and wealth management.

As AI applications gradually enter the period of releasing large-scale value, while the six major state-owned banks reap technology dividends, they are also faced with a series of new challenges and issues.

“When banks advance the application of AI technology, they need to pay special attention to AI security issues, including data privacy protection as well as the risks brought by black-and-gray industries using AI.” Du Juan, a senior researcher at the SuShang Bank Research Institute, said in an interview with reporters from 《Securities Daily》.

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

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