Media Reads Financial Reports | Resilience and Reinvention: The "Break" and "Establish" Behind Huaxia Bank's 2025 Annual Report

(Source: Huaxia Bank News)

In 2025, the global economic landscape underwent a profound readjustment, and the domestic economy’s structural transformation entered deep water. For the financial industry, this is both the closing and decisive year for the “14th Five-Year Plan” target tasks, and the challenging year for facing industry pressures head-on and exploring a path to high-quality growth.

Recently, Huaxia Bank officially released its 2025 annual report to the public. The data show that as of the end of 2025, Huaxia Bank’s total assets reached CNY 2.38T, up 8.3% from the end of the previous year; deposits totaled CNY 2.57T, up 10.7%; and loans totaled CNY 43.32B, up 8.5%. Of particular note, both the increment and growth rate of its deposits and loans hit new highs in the past five years. In a complex operating environment where operating revenue and profit faced pressure, this performance not only outlines Huaxia Bank’s steady growth in scale, but also reflects its strategic resolve to “return operations to fundamentals, return management to essence, and return positioning to its true character.”

As Huaxia Bank’s management stated in its address in the annual report, 2025 is a pivotal year that carries forward the past while ushering in the future. Confronted with industry-wide common challenges such as narrowing net interest margins and heightened risk exposure, Huaxia Bank did not choose to waver in old models. Instead, with unshakable determination, it tackled difficulties by proactively clearing historical burdens, deepening distinctive financial services, relying on its capital-city home ground, and accelerating its digital transformation. In the “break” and “establish” between, it built up momentum for the upcoming new journey of the “15th Five-Year Plan.”

Actively clear historical burdens

Digital and intelligent risk control strengthens the foundation

In Huaxia Bank’s operating logic in 2025, it demonstrated an exceptionally strong sense of “risk awareness.” Under pressure from fundamentals, the bank did not take an evasive stance. Rather, it treated the improvement of asset quality as the lifeline for survival and development, drawing a clear roadmap for managing and reducing existing risks.

Over the past year, Huaxia Bank adhered to an overall prudent risk appetite, upholding the approach of “control new risks and reduce old ones, treating both symptoms and root causes.” The most powerful data support is that in 2025, the bank累计清收处置不良资产 totaling CNY 32.96B. Among this, bad-debt write-off reached CNY 9.82B, and cash recovery achieved CNY 244.62B. This high-intensity disposal effort, while creating some pressure on profit performance in the short term, is anchored in the core logic of “accelerating the clearance of historical burdens.”

The improving trend in asset quality stems not only from effective reduction of existing risks, but also from optimizing allocation of new assets and strengthening risk prevention and control in key areas. With respect to real estate loans and local government financing platform business, the bank strictly implemented national and regulatory policy requirements, strengthening risk control for concentration. It also strengthened risk monitoring and control for internet loans and credit card business, and established a unified management system for all types of credit-risk-bearing businesses.

Through in-depth discovery and precise disposal of existing risks, Huaxia Bank is achieving “deep purification” of its balance sheet. This “break first, then establish” approach effectively frees up credit resources previously occupied by existing risks, creating valuable room for deploying capital into high-quality areas afterward. As of the end of 2025, the bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 1.55%, down 0.05 percentage points from the beginning of the year, marking a continuous decline for five consecutive years. This trend validates the effectiveness of its whole life-cycle asset management.

If clearing and disposing non-performing assets is “treating the symptoms,” then the digital and intelligent upgrade of the risk control system is “treating the root.” In 2025, Huaxia Bank carried out an all-round iteration of its risk management system. It established a risk management system with sound organizational structure and clearly defined responsibility boundaries, clarifying the division of duties and collaboration among the board of directors, the Related Party Transactions Control Committee, the Risk Compliance and Consumer Rights Protection Committee, and senior management in comprehensive risk management.

On the technology support front, Huaxia Bank accelerated the digital and intelligent transformation of risk control. By orderly advancing the construction of an “enterprise-level investment and financing intelligence platform,” iterating and upgrading the “enterprise big data risk identification and early warning system,” and putting into production the “Special Asset Management System Project Phase II,” the bank realized the leap from “passive prevention” to “active early warning.” By promoting cross-system data integration and digging deeply into the value of early-warning data from a “business + risk” perspective, it built an end-to-end view of operational risk monitoring.

In addition, for emerging areas such as large-model applications, Huaxia Bank also proactively strengthened the safety governance line for large models and carried out content safety risk prevention projects. This exploration of deep integration between financial technology and risk management ensures that, in a complex operating environment, all of the bank’s businesses can run smoothly, and it truly fortifies the safety line.

This “control new risks while reducing old ones, treating both symptoms and root causes” risk control strategy has laid a solid asset-quality foundation for Huaxia Bank to enter the “15th Five-Year Plan” period light on its feet and focus on developing distinctive businesses.

Differentiated breakthroughs in green finance and technology finance

While growing in scale, another core highlight shown in Huaxia Bank’s 2025 annual report is the continued optimization of its business structure. Against the backdrop of the nation emphasizing new productive forces and green, low-carbon development, Huaxia Bank precisely captured strategic opportunities and made a substantial contribution to the “five major sections” of finance.

Relying on the main battlefield of serving technological innovation and industrial upgrading, Huaxia Bank explored an effective path to serve new productive forces through an emphasis on “specialization” and requirements of “precision.”

In the specialized operating model, Huaxia Bank accelerated the development of the “9+16+N” technology finance specialized framework, with “dedicated people doing dedicated work” as the guiding principle. It strengthened the deployment of specialized technology finance teams and technology-featured branches. This strategy is directly reflected in the data: as of the end of 2025, the bank’s loan customers for technology-based enterprises reached 8,762, up 47.38% from the end of the previous year; and the loan balance for technology-based enterprises was CNY 3.94B, up significantly by 53.74% from the end of the previous year—far higher than the bank-wide average loan growth rate.

By promoting distinctive products such as R&D loans, investment-linked loans, and option loans, Huaxia Bank achieved precise coverage of key customer groups, including technology-based SMEs, high-tech enterprises, “specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative” (SP-SRI) enterprises, and manufacturing single champions. At the same time, it successfully participated in the first batch of bank interbank market technology innovation bond investments nationwide, with technology investment balance rising by more than 2 times year-on-year. This “investment and lending linkage” and group synergy model builds a multi-party coordinated technology finance ecosystem.

In green finance, as a pioneer in China’s green finance sector, Huaxia Bank continued to expand its leading edge in 2025. As of the end of the reporting period, the bank’s green loan balance increased by 30.99% compared with the end of the previous year, demonstrating strong growth momentum.

In terms of product and mechanism innovation, Huaxia Bank, together with the Asian Development Bank, set up the “Project to Promote Green and Low-Carbon Development of Industrial Parks,” providing dedicated support for green and low-carbon transformation of parks. It also issued CNY 20 billion of green finance bonds. Meanwhile, the bank introduced digital methods into its green finance management, building a green finance management system to achieve automation and intelligence in green classification, environmental risk monitoring and assessment, and customer ESG scoring.

Whether it is the emergence of technology finance or the continued deepening of green finance, these developments indicate that Huaxia Bank’s asset structure is undergoing profound change. This change not only aligns with national strategic direction, but also objectively enhances the bank’s service added value and differentiated competitive advantages.

“Jinghua Action” and Coordinated Development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei:

Turning home-field advantages into strategic depth

As a financial institution under the administration of Beijing, Huaxia Bank fully understands that the foundation of its development lies in the capital. In 2025, it leveraged its “home-field advantages” to deeply integrate serving the capital’s economic development with its own high-quality development, delivering a response with strong local contribution.

In 2025, Huaxia Bank launched and implemented the “Jinghua Action,” establishing a dedicated work team to promote business in Beijing. At the level of the head office, it provided differentiated pricing policies and “green channel” support.

The impact of this action is evident: Huaxia Bank achieved full coverage in serving 37 state-owned enterprises under municipal administration, and signed strategic cooperation agreements with 21 such enterprises. For the full year, in Beijing, the deposit and loan growth rates were 17% and 13% respectively, and both rankings improved by 1 position compared with the beginning of the year. By comprehensively connecting with key municipal and district projects such as “3 100s,” it cumulatively provided more than CNY 500 billion in various investment and financing services for the Beijing region.

On the implementation of specific projects, Huaxia Bank focused on landmark projects such as the demolition and relocation and reconstruction around the Forbidden City, M101 Digital Port, the “Bayli” commercial complex, rail transit, and people’s livelihood projects. This deep participation in the development of capital functions and key industries not only solidified its basic business in liability operations, but also extended financial services along the chain, reaching a large number of project upstream and downstream customers.

In the area of coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Huaxia Bank is not only a participant but also a driver. The bank formulated and implemented the “2025 Work Plan for Serving the Capital’s Economic Development and Coordinated Development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei.” In 2025, it provided investment and financing of over CNY 113 billion to key projects and enterprises for coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, up 30% year-on-year.

With funding directed according to an industrial layout of “one core with two wings” and “six chains and five clusters,” Huaxia Bank’s capital flowed to infrastructure and industry projects such as the Tianjin-Weifang-Su Highway and the Hebei Taihang cold-chain industrial park. Through a head-office-and-branches linkage system, Huaxia Bank, as a financial bridge, empowered the cultivation of new productive forces within the region, providing a steady stream of financial liquidity to support coordinated regional development.

This development model tightly aligned with regional characteristics has given Huaxia Bank distinct industry recognition and a solid share in the market amid intense competition, reflecting the true colors of state-owned financial institutions: “talk politics, create value, and assume responsibility.”

Digital transformation and organizational change:

Injecting endogenous momentum into the start of the “15th Five-Year Plan”

2026 is the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan.” Huaxia Bank has deeply recognized that competition in the banking industry has entered the deep-water zone of a “digital and intelligent” transformation. At this critical juncture, the bank, using the “ten major actions” as key levers, rebuilt development momentum from the inside by optimizing the organizational structure systemically and building a digital foundation.

In 2025, Huaxia Bank successfully completed the five-year plan for its digital technology transformation. This was an all-round reconstruction from the underlying architecture to application scenarios.

In terms of investment, information technology investment reached CNY 4.943 billion, accounting for 4.29% of operating revenue. In terms of output, the main development of the new generation core system was basically completed. The bank built an enterprise-level cloud platform featuring “one cloud, dual stacks” and “one cloud, multi chips,” with the overall cloud adoption rate for information systems exceeding 97%.

This enhancement in digital capabilities has already penetrated every fine channel of operations. On the one hand, in the online retail segment, the bank’s mobile banking signed-up customer base exceeded 31.31 million, and monthly active users (MAU) reached 6.26 million. Upgraded and refreshed mobile banking APPs and the featured scenario of “My Home” significantly enhanced the bank’s reach in digital services.

On the other hand, in the offline branch segment, the bank cumulatively built 206 new-type branches featuring “simple + smart + scenarios.” With the deep application of robotic process automation (RPA) technology, the total number of online scenarios across the bank reached 2,528, and the bank cumulatively saved 610k equivalent labor hours throughout the year. In addition, the bank established an ITBP (IT business partner) mechanism on the operations side to facilitate the handoff between business and technology, ensuring that business needs can be quickly put into production.

Facing the year of establishing foundations for the “15th Five-Year Plan,” Huaxia Bank also brought about new developments in organizational mechanisms and personnel appointments. In its address, “management returning to essence” was repeatedly mentioned, indicating that the bank is committed to building a more flat, efficient, and market-oriented organizational structure.

Specifically, Huaxia Bank launched a “ten major actions” program to improve operational and management capabilities, directly addressing pain points in business development and optimizing and adjusting organizational structures. The bank streamlined five first-level departments, adjusted the internal setups of 26 head-office departments, promoted organizational streamlining, clearly defined authority and responsibilities, and smooth mechanisms, implemented the service philosophy of “the head office serving branches, branches serving sub-branches, and the whole bank serving the front line,” and comprehensively released organizational effectiveness.

Led by the new party committee leadership team, the whole bank is being injected with new impetus. This new atmosphere is reflected not only in adjustments to business strategy, but also in the profound implementation of a risk culture and high-quality development philosophy. At present, the bank has built a compliance officer team covering the head office, branches, and subsidiaries, becoming the first financial institution in the banking industry to systematically establish such a compliance officer team. The bank strengthened accountability management, advanced compliance digital transformation, prevented case risks along the entire chain, optimized the anti-money laundering risk assessment system, and strengthened operational risk control and legal risk prevention.

Looking back at 2025, although Huaxia Bank faces staged pressure in short-term financial indicators such as operating revenue and net profit, and is undergoing the pains of actively clearing historical burdens, what the outside world sees is a financial entity that is gradually “shedding its skin and transforming.”

By actively collecting and clearing historical non-performing assets, it is becoming “lighter.” By stepping up technology and green finance, it is building a new “support point” for profitability. By deepening its presence in the capital and in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, it is becoming “more steady.” And through comprehensive digital transformation, it is becoming “more agile.”

Looking ahead to 2026, the “15th Five-Year Plan” is officially underway. While the global economic landscape still contains haze, the rapid rise of key domestic industries and the momentum breakthrough of technological transformation provide Huaxia Bank with new strategic anchors. Under the tone of “progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, and improving quality by maintaining stability,” Huaxia Bank is moving forward with even more resolute steps toward a higher realm of China’s modern finance practice. This answer, forged through commitment and contributions, is not only a closing summary of the past five years, but also a grand prelude to high-quality development in the coming five years.

Source: Securities Times

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