All six major banks report double growth in revenue and net profit; total dividends for 2025 will exceed 400 billion yuan.

By March 30, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of Communications (BoCom), and Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) have all released their 2025 “performance reports.” During the reporting period, all six major banks achieved both revenue and net profit growth, with total net earnings of about 1.42 trillion yuan, and many banks’ core operating indicators improving quarter by quarter.

In 2025, to support the development of the real economy, the six major banks further optimized the allocation of financial resources. Loan growth rates in key areas such as technological innovation and inclusive small and micro lending were higher than the average loan growth rate. The six major banks also made “large-scale” dividend distributions, returning real money to investors: the total amount of dividends planned for the full year exceeded 400 billion yuan. Looking ahead to 2026, management teams at multiple major banks are expected to take an optimistic view.

Improvement in core operating indicators

In 2025, the six major banks operated steadily, with both operating revenue and net profit registering year-on-year growth. Judging by the trend, many banks’ core operating indicators improved quarter by quarter, changing the situation seen around mid-year where “revenue grew but profits did not” at roughly half of the major banks.

Data show that in 2025, the net profit attributable to shareholders at ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB, BoCom, and PSBC grew year on year by 0.7%, 3.2%, 2.18%, 0.99%, 2.18%, and 1.07%, respectively. Operating revenue grew year on year by 2.0%, 2.1%, 4.48%, 1.88%, 2.02%, and 1.99%, respectively.

Zhang Hui, President of BOC, said that in 2025, BOC’s after-tax profit and after-tax profit attributable to shareholders saw accelerating year-on-year growth rates quarter by quarter, and net interest income also improved quarter by quarter. Zhang Yi, President of CCB, said that in 2025, CCB’s operating income has continued to post positive growth since the second quarter, and the full-year increase in profitability is improving quarter by quarter, while the decline in net interest income has narrowed quarter by quarter.

Breaking down the income structure, it can be seen that, under the impact of the low interest-rate environment, most major banks’ net interest income remains under pressure. Non-interest income has become the main contributor to performance improvement. Specifically, thanks to the development of businesses such as wealth management, many major banks’ net fee and commission income grew steadily. Meanwhile, affected by developments in financial market conditions, many major banks’ other non-interest income such as investment returns grew quickly.

In 2025, with the exception of BoCom, the other five major banks’ net interest income declined year on year, but the rate of decline showed a trend of slowing. And as a key indicator influencing net interest income, the net interest margin of all six major banks narrowed year on year. Regarding the net interest margin, ICBC said that this was mainly driven by factors including the downward adjustment of the Loan Prime Rate (LPR) and changes in deposit maturity structure.

Regarding net interest income achieving positive growth in 2025, Zhang Baojiang, President of BoCom, said the bank kept net interest income—the basic “revenue pillar”—stable, and the decline in net interest margin gradually stabilized. Looking ahead to 2026, BoCom said that, due to factors such as re-pricing of deposits, the net interest margin can maintain a stable and improving trend.

All six major banks’ net fee and commission income achieved positive growth, and the contribution to revenue increased. For example, in 2025, PSBC’s net fee and commission income grew 16.15% year on year. In addition, the fee income from its wealth management business and investment banking business both achieved year-on-year growth rates of more than 30%. Looking ahead to 2026, Xu Xueming, Vice President of PSBC, said that the growth of non-interest businesses has multiple favorable factors, including a rebound in external markets, as well as policies to expand domestic demand, boost consumption, and stabilize the stock market.

In terms of other non-interest income, many banks’ investment returns delivered standout growth. In 2025, CCB’s investment returns grew 129.18% year on year. Zhang Yi said the bank strengthened market research and judgment, optimized its investment strategies, and improved its trading capabilities.

Increase support for key areas

In 2025, the six major banks’ credit deployment became more balanced. They continued to increase support for key areas, with loan growth in fields such as technological innovation, boosting consumption, and inclusive small and micro lending rising relatively fast.

Liu Jun, President of ICBC, said ICBC placed greater emphasis on optimizing the structure and timing of deployments. In 2025, the loan balance’s balance level reached 67%, up 3.6 percentage points year on year. Key areas including manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, green initiatives, and inclusive sectors maintained relatively fast growth, and the major banks’ role as the main force in serving the real economy was brought into strong play.

Serve “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” and rural revitalization with more practical measures. By the end of 2025, ABC’s county-level loan balance stood at 10.9 trillion yuan, with 1,081.2 billion yuan in new loans; the growth rate was 11.0%, 2.1 percentage points higher than the bank-wide average. The balance accounted for 41.0% of domestic loans.

Supporting Chinese enterprises “going global” and foreign capital “bringing in,” by the end of 2025, BOC had cumulatively followed up on more than 1,400 corporate credit projects in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, and cumulatively credit support exceeded 439 billion USD.

CCB’s retail credit advantage was consolidated. By the end of 2025, the bank’s domestic personal loans and advances reached 9.05 trillion yuan, up 2.01% from the end of 2024. In 2025, the volumes of personal housing loans and personal consumer loans remained ahead of peers. With a solid customer base, it served 785 million individual customers, and managed personal financial assets (personal AUM) exceeded 2.3 trillion yuan.

Around the key priorities of building Shanghai’s main arena, BoCom will continue to tilt more resources toward Shanghai and other key regions in the Yangtze River Delta. It aims to maintain relatively high growth rates in loan and deposit scales in the Yangtze River Delta, and to steadily improve profitability and the contribution to profits.

Lushiba, President of PSBC, said that corporate business used to be a shortcoming for PSBC, but over the past few years it has developed rapidly. By the end of 2025, PSBC’s corporate customer financing total reached 6.79 trillion yuan. Over the past two years, the growth in revenue and in loans and deposits for corporate business ranked among the top in China’s state-owned major banks.

Large-scale dividend payouts; asset quality stays stable

The six major banks’ asset quality remained sound. By the end of 2025, the non-performing loan ratios at ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB, BoCom, and PSBC were 1.31%, 1.27%, 1.23%, 1.31%, 1.28%, and 0.95%, respectively. Except for PSBC, the non-performing loan ratios at the other five major banks were all lower than at the end of the previous year.

Lin Li, Vice President of ABC, said that over the next 2 to 3 years, the dividing line for commercial banks lies in their risk management capabilities. ABC focused on controlling incremental additions, building new stock, and strengthening fundamentals, and aimed to highlight “five focuses”: prudent and stable operations, a systems perspective, development quality and efficiency, problem orientation, and bottom-line thinking.

In 2025, the Ministry of Finance issued the first batch of special treasury bonds totaling 500 billion yuan to support BOC, CCB, BoCom, and PSBC in replenishing their core tier-one capital, allowing multiple major banks to “recapitalize.”

Overall, the six major banks’ capital position remained stable, and their ability to serve the real economy and withstand risks improved further. By the end of the reporting period, the core tier-one capital adequacy ratios at ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB, BoCom, and PSBC were 13.57%, 11.08%, 12.53%, 14.63%, 11.43%, and 10.53%, respectively.

Tian Fenglin, Secretary of the ICBC Board of Directors and Senior Business Director, said that in 2026, ICBC will carry out capital replenishment in an orderly manner and has already formulated a new round of issuance plans for capital and TLAC instruments.

While maintaining steady growth in performance, the six major banks continued to distribute “large-scale” dividends. Based on comprehensive annual report data, in 2025 the six major banks planned total dividends of 14.2k yuan.

Specifically, together with the interim dividends already distributed, the planned total payout amounts for full-year 2025 at ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB, BoCom, and PSBC were 109k yuan, 90.5k yuan, 230k yuan, 67.9k yuan, 427.42B yuan, and 110.59B yuan, respectively.

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

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