Above the trillion-level steps! Chongqing Bank's retail and corporate division "20/80" split—what's next?

Chongqing Bank, whose asset size has just crossed the 1 trillion yuan mark (reaching 1.034 trillion yuan), saw a number of operational indicators achieve breakthroughs against the tide in its 2025 annual report.

Assets under management rose 20.67% year over year. With such a large margin, it is among the front-runners among peers that have already released their annual reports.

The year-over-year growth rates of operating income (15.113 billion yuan) and net profit attributable to shareholders (5.654 billion yuan) are both above 10%, reaching 10.48% and 10.49%, respectively. The increase is also among the top in the peer group, and compared with itself, it represents the first double-digit growth in both operating income and net profit in nearly six years.

Worth noting is that, in the industry overall, the decline in net interest margins has narrowed or even stabilized, yet Chongqing Bank has gone further: its net interest margin not only stopped falling but also rebounded by 4 basis points to 1.39% against the trend.

But when it comes to Chongqing Bank’s loan mix, describing it as “imbalanced” is probably also appropriate—its retail and corporate loan shares show such a large gap that it can be characterized as an “80/20 split.” How to improve retail business is a proposition the bank needs to keep thinking about.

Rooted in the locality, but the loan mix is “imbalanced”

In 2025, Chongqing Bank’s assets, deposits, and loans reached 10337.26 billion yuan, 5657.04 billion yuan, and 5312.85 billion yuan, respectively—up 20.67%, 19.32%, and 20.58% from the end of the previous year.

Based on its original positioning of serving the local economy as a city commercial bank, Chongqing Bank is undoubtedly benefiting from and also feeding back to the regional economy’s development, which is evident in many key indicator breakthroughs in its annual report.

First, last year Chongqing Bank closely followed the goal of building a modern industrial system, increasing credit deployment in key areas such as advanced manufacturing and technological innovation. The balances of manufacturing industry and of its medium- to long-term loans grew by more than 20% and 30%, respectively; the balance of technology loans increased by 60%; and both green and inclusive loans recorded double-digit growth. Deposit and loan increment have remained #1 among peers across the city for two consecutive years.

Second, Chongqing Bank connected with national strategies in specialized teams. Financing balances for supporting the construction of the “Chengdu-Chongqing dual-city” and the Western Land-Sea New Corridor increased 27% and 86% year over year, respectively, and it supported nearly 150 major project constructions. By deepening the “intelligent financing to facilitate smoother flows” initiative, it helped build a financial center in the West. In terms of three indicators—underwriting share, proportion, and number—of bonds issued by non-financial enterprises, it rose to first place in the Chongqing region and led among Western legal-person financial institutions.

Evidently, as a key local financial force in Chongqing, Chongqing Bank has taken proactive action from the strategic level, tilting resources further toward enabling the regional real economy.

And to some extent, this has resulted in the “imbalance” in Chongqing Bank’s asset structure. From the bank’s asset side, among its total customer loan balance of 5312.85 billion yuan, the total corporate loan amount is 4098.67 billion yuan, accounting for as much as 77.15%; the total retail loan amount is 967.02 billion yuan, accounting for only 18.2%. Roughly speaking, Chongqing Bank’s loan structure can be described as a “80/20 split” between retail and corporate loans.

After reviewing the static indicators, let’s look at the dynamic trend. Chongqing Bank’s retail loan balance decreased from 97.618 billion yuan at the end of 2024 to 96.702 billion yuan at the end of last year, a decline of 0.94%. Meanwhile, corporate loans rose from 313.003 billion yuan to 409.867 billion yuan—an increase of 30.95%. While the bank’s corporate loan scale, increment, and growth rate all hit historical highs, Chongqing Bank’s retail loan balance was still shrinking.

Admittedly, Chongqing Bank’s corporate credit deployment is undoubtedly of high quality and has resilience: the balances of manufacturing and medium- to long-term loans grew by more than 20% and 30%, respectively; the increments and growth rates of manufacturing loans both hit the highest levels in nearly five years; technology-based enterprise loan balances and green credit scales increased by 60% and 40%, respectively; and it also issued the first bank technology innovation financial bond in the Western region. These all show that the bank’s high growth in its corporate business is focused on new-quality productive forces.

Therefore, the proposition the bank needs to think about is not to deliberately slow down corporate business, but how to effectively increase the balance and share of retail business credit deployment, and build a more robust asset structure—which of course tests the wisdom of the bank’s management.

Major state-owned shareholder increases its holdings

A notice of resolutions from the 22nd meeting of the seventh session of Chongqing Bank’s board of directors, recently released by Chongqing Bank, shows that Chongqing Expressway Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Chongqing Expressway Group”) increased its holdings of approximately 151.2 million shares of A-shares of Chongqing Bank through conversion of convertible bonds on March 24. Together with its persons acting in concert, it holds 181.1 million A-shares, for a combined shareholding ratio of 4.99%.

Chongqing Bank’s 13 billion yuan convertible bonds issued in 2022 have been steadily progressing in terms of conversion. This time, Chongqing Expressway Group increased its holdings by converting bonds into 151.0 million shares of A-shares, demonstrating the steadfast confidence of a major state-owned shareholder. Analysts say that, based on a static calculation using annual report data, after all the convertible bonds are converted, the core tier-one capital adequacy ratio would be significantly improved, effectively alleviating capital pressure.

In terms of asset quality, Chongqing Bank’s asset quality has remained stable. In 2025, its non-performing loan ratio was 1.14%, down 0.11 percentage points from the previous year; and its provision coverage ratio was 245.58%.

That means that among Chongqing Bank’s top ten shareholders, the former ninth-largest shareholder Chongqing Road & Bridge (holding 4.93%), has been replaced by Chongqing Expressway with a holding ratio of 4.99%. According to the 2025 annual report, Chongqing Yufu Capital Operation Group and its persons acting in concert jointly hold 759 million shares, accounting for 21.84% of the bank’s total shares, making it the bank’s largest shareholder.

A large amount of information and precise analysis are all available in the Sina Finance APP