Reordering of the 9 listed joint-stock commercial banks' rankings

As the 2025 annual reports of the banking industry continue to be released, the performance results of all nine A-share listed joint-stock commercial banks have now been unveiled. Under multiple pressures—including margin compression, intensifying homogenized competition, and the sweeping wave of AI technology—these nine joint-stock banks, as the most dynamic and competitive pillar of the banking industry, are charting distinctly different development paths.

Upon closer inspection, some have held firmly to their leading positions, continuing to run ahead in the wealth management arena; some have alternated offense and defense in fierce competition, vying for industry rankings; some have “cut to the bone to heal the wound” amid the pain of transformation, seeking a path to break through; and others have proactively laid out their plans in the technology wave to seize future opportunities.

Leading at the Top and a Shifting Rankings Game

Currently, China has 12 national joint-stock commercial banks in total, of which 9 have successfully listed on the A-share market, becoming standout players in the joint-stock bank cohort. As the 2025 annual reports continue to come out, the two main performance metrics—operating revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders—have become the key benchmarks for measuring each joint-stock bank’s “hard strength,” more clearly revealing the competitive landscape among banks in different tiers.

Judging from the data, in 2025, China Merchants Bank once again secured the title of “No. 1 among joint-stock banks,” with operating revenue of CNY 337.53B and net profit attributable to shareholders of CNY 150.18B. This revenue and net profit scale far surpasses that of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s peers among the six state-owned major banks, including Bank of Communications, and also exceeds Postal Savings Bank of China’s performance in net profit attributable to shareholders. Looking back over the past decade, this “King of Retail” has consistently held the top spot. Operating revenue increased from CNY 337.53B in 2016 to CNY 62.08B today, a decade growth of 61.48%; net profit attributable to shareholders surged from CNY 150.18B to CNY 212.74B, a growth of as much as 141.91%.

Industrial Bank and CITIC Bank have been competing around the “CNY 200 billion revenue track.” In 2020, Industrial Bank was the first to cross the CNY 200 billion threshold, overtaking China Development Bank and taking the “second position.” In 2021, CITIC Bank followed suit and joined this tier, and the battle for their positions has been unfolding ever since. In 2024, CITIC Bank briefly surpassed Industrial Bank on revenue and held the advantage for a time; but in 2025, Industrial Bank, supported by revenue of CNY 77.47B, slightly overtook it and returned to the “second position.” However, in terms of net profit attributable to shareholders, the picture has been relatively stable. Industrial Bank and CITIC Bank have maintained the second- and third-place structure from the past five years, with 2025 figures of CNY 70.62B and CNY 173.96B respectively.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, which had previously ranked first in revenue and third in net profit attributable to shareholders among the nine joint-stock banks a decade ago, after experiencing multi-year performance fluctuations, has now returned to the growth track. In 2025, the bank achieved operating revenue of CNY 50.02B and net profit attributable to shareholders of CNY 126.31B, representing year-on-year growth of 1.88% and 10.52% respectively, thereby holding its position as fourth among joint-stock banks.

In sharp contrast to the clearly defined pattern at the top is the mid-tier scramble for places five through seven, where rankings for both revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders show distinct divergence. On the revenue front, China Minsheng Bank managed to break through against the odds with a year-on-year growth rate of 4.82%, climbing to fifth place. Meanwhile, Ping An Bank, which had been steadily in fifth place for four consecutive years, saw its 2025 operating revenue decline year-on-year by 10.4%, causing its ranking to slide to sixth. Everbright Bank, by contrast, remained stable, ranking seventh for two straight years with operating revenue of CNY 42.63B. But in the net profit attributable to shareholders rankings, the pattern reversed: Ping An Bank ranked fifth with CNY 38.83B, Everbright Bank was sixth with CNY 30.56B, and China Minsheng Bank was seventh with CNY 100k. As for Huaxia Bank and Zheshang Bank, their rankings have remained stable over the past decade, and in 2025 they also finished with eighth and ninth place.

In terms of asset size, China Merchants Bank’s “leader” advantage is becoming even more pronounced. Over four years, it consecutively crossed the four milestones of CNY 10 trillion, 11 trillion, 12 trillion, and 13 trillion. By the end of 2025, total assets reached CNY 13.07 trillion, up 7.56% year-on-year. In the same period, Industrial Bank’s asset size rose from CNY 10.51 trillion to CNY 11.1 trillion, an increase of 5.58%. Previously, CITIC Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, which had initially shown positive results in their performance bulletins, both successfully entered the “CNY 10 trillion club” in 2025. As a result, the “CNY 10 trillion club” in China’s banking industry has expanded to 10 members, further strengthening joint-stock banks’ asset strength.

Regarding the performance of the nine A-share listed joint-stock banks, Wang Hongying, Director of China (Hong Kong) Financial Derivatives Investment Research Institute, said that joint-stock banks have already shown clearly differentiated competitive patterns. This phenomenon indicates that the divergence among joint-stock banks at the strategic level has begun to widen the gap. In the middle tier, the operations of joint-stock banks are relatively stable, but the gap between the top and bottom banks still exists. Overall, joint-stock banks’ asset quality performance has remained relatively stable, and net interest margins have also moved toward steadiness. Some joint-stock banks in the middle tier and those ranked lower are actively adjusting their operating strategies—gradually moving out of the past adverse business dilemmas caused by real estate and general manufacturing loan exposures, shifting toward serving the high-quality real economy, and increasing the strength of corporate credit in high-end manufacturing, green industries, and technology sectors. At the same time, these banks are also using digital and intelligence-driven (“digital plus intelligence”) tools to further strengthen the growth of retail businesses.

“Core Strength” Becomes Differentiated

If operating revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders are the “hard strength” of banks in the financial world, then business layout is the basic “foundation color” that supports that strength. Reviewing the 2025 financial reports, the nine joint-stock banks, leveraging their respective strengths, place different emphases on corporate and retail business development, each following a differentiated path and finding their own points for profit growth.

China Merchants Bank continues to stick to its core positioning as “the King of Retail.” More than twenty years ago, the bank’s then-president Ma Weihua set the tone for the bank’s long-distance run with the view that “if you don’t grab wholesale business, you won’t have food to eat in the present; if you don’t grab retail business, you won’t have food to eat in the future.” In 2025, China Merchants Bank’s retail financial services operating revenue reached CNY 110k, accounting for 61.89% of the bank’s total operating revenue, while its profit contribution share has continued to remain at over 50%.

Even more envious to its peers is the retail customer base of China Merchants Bank with a high “gold content.” As of the end of 2025, the bank’s managed retail customers’ total assets (AUM) exceeded CNY 1.7 trillion, adding more than CNY 200 billion in new assets over one year, with a five-year compound growth rate of over 13%. Among them, “Golden Sunflower” customers with monthly average assets of CNY 120k or more reached 5.9315 million accounts, up 13.29% year-on-year; the number of private banking customers with assets in the ten-million range approached 200k accounts, with a growth rate of 17.87%.

Unlike China Merchants Bank’s retail orientation, Industrial Bank uses its corporate business as a solid profit foundation and fully leverages the dual advantages of “a commercial bank plus an investment bank” and “regional plus industry.” As of the end of 2025, its corporate loans (excluding bill discounting) balance was approximately CNY 3.74 trillion, up 8.66% from the end of the prior year—an increase far exceeding the bank’s average loan growth rate. Among them, loan growth for manufacturing, green finance, and technology finance exceeded 1x, 2x, and 3x respectively.

However, on the retail side, the bank shows a special pattern of “deposit surge and loan contraction.” Retail deposits reached CNY 1.8 trillion, up sharply 14.81% year-on-year, ranking as the second among joint-stock banks, but retail loans declined 3.41% year-on-year. Retail business remains a shortcoming that needs reinforcement. As the bank’s chairman Lü Jiajin said in the annual report address, the bank must “unswervingly forge long boards within the peer group, consolidate the corporate-finance foundation, and make up for the retail short board.”

CITIC Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank have also continued to push corporate business on the business side. In 2025, CITIC Bank’s group corporate banking business operating revenue accounted for 46.5%, while its share of pre-tax profit was as high as 64.6%; meanwhile, the group retail banking business operating revenue share was 37.3%, and its pre-tax profit share was only 6.3%, further highlighting the leading position of corporate business. Data show that the bank’s corporate loans (excluding bill discounting) increased 13.24% from the prior year, becoming the institution with the fastest corporate loan growth among joint-stock banks. Loan balances for manufacturing, leasing and business services, and the water, environment and public facilities management industries ranked among the top three in the bank’s corporate loan deployment.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s corporate business has also become a growth engine. In 2025, the bank achieved net operating income from corporate business of CNY 130k. With its established “five major tracks”—technology finance, supply chain finance, inclusive finance, cross-border finance, and treasury finance—it has become the main growth pole for corporate loans. The bank focuses on industries with clear alignment to national policy support and industry orientation, prioritizing strategic emerging industries, infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing. During the reporting period, the balance of newly added loans accounted for more than 70% of the overall increase in corporate loan growth.

For Ping An Bank, which is in a critical phase of transformation, it treats corporate business as the breakthrough point for getting past the bottleneck. In 2025, the proportions of retail and corporate revenue were basically equal; however, the proportion of net profit from retail financial services was only 6.3%, while the proportion of net profit from corporate business was as high as 71.6%. Affected by pressure to reduce high-risk consumer loans and credit card loans, retail impairment provisions continued at a high intensity. Corporate business served as a phase “backup,” giving retail business sufficient room to recover. Wang Jun, Assistant President of Ping An Bank, said, “My preliminary judgment is that retail business revenue and profit will further improve. While realizing growth in efficiency and returns, Ping An Bank will further strengthen the management and optimization of customer groups and their structures.”

Previously known as the “King of Small and Micro,” China Minsheng Bank achieved corporate business operating revenue of CNY 130.7k in 2025, accounting for 48.04% of the bank’s total operating revenue, and its profit contribution share was as high as 88.68%. Everbright Bank’s business structure is relatively balanced: the operating revenue shares of corporate finance and retail finance are both close to 40%. Huaxia Bank and Zheshang Bank continued their regional deepening strategies, focusing respectively on the Jing-Jin-Ji region and Zhejiang province. With corporate business as the absolute dominant focus, they formed their own regional competitive advantages.

Wang Hongying said that against the backdrop of the major policy supporting high-quality development of real entities in the country, the nine joint-stock banks are all stepping up efforts in the corporate business arena, and corporate credit deployment has increased to different degrees. “This shows that even if last year’s operating performance differed somewhat, these banks have realized that the loans supporting the development of high-quality economy-related sectors are the direction of banks’ future credit business development. And the optimization of corporate business structure is being advanced step by step under the backdrop of supporting strategic emerging industries and deploying high-quality credit. For example, today, more and more banks are transforming from traditional commercial banks toward investment banks by enhancing their comprehensive financial service capabilities. Beyond traditional credit and bond businesses, they also support high-quality development of China’s economy by setting up industrial investment companies and other measures, leveraging diversified investment and financing models. Therefore, the trend toward optimization of the industrial loan structure is already very clear.”

Wang Hongying further pointed out that commercial banks are also strengthening comprehensive skills training for corporate business personnel. By improving corporate account managers’ comprehensive financial capabilities, they can become enterprise investment and financing advisors, providing various types of financial resources support at different stages of a company’s lifecycle. At the same time, many fresh graduates with high-tech industry backgrounds are being recruited and trained to go deep into technology and green industry sectors. Using their own professional background and bank financial resources, they build a bridge between enterprises and financial resources, improving service capabilities. Moreover, banks are also leveraging AI to optimize financing structures and resource allocation for China’s high-quality real economy, enabling resources to serve China’s high-quality industrial development more effectively.

Who Is Adjusting Their Course

Against the backdrop of continuing margin compression and intensifying homogenized competition, the old path of expanding scale can no longer hold. The shift from scale-driven expansion to value-focused deep cultivation has become a challenge that every bank must face. In 2025, banks’ strategic choices also showed clear differences: some are accelerating their “evolution” along established tracks, moving from retail into a higher-tier wealth management platform; some actively “cut to the bone to heal the wound,” reshaping their development path through pains of phased reform; and some are trying to return to the right course in the “wrong way,” attempting to recapture their past genetic advantages.

As the leader among joint-stock banks, after China Merchants Bank firmly established itself as “the King of Retail,” it did not stop at scale expansion, but moved toward a higher-dimensional transformation into wealth management. At the performance briefing, the bank’s chairman Miao Jianmin explicitly proposed the strategic framework of “starting retail anew and surpassing corporate business,” where “starting retail anew” centers on three key directions: improving the quality of assets, strengthening liabilities, and upgrading wealth management to a higher level. Wealth management was defined as the core breakthrough for future retail business. The bank’s president Wang Liang also acknowledged, “In 2025, China Merchants Bank’s big wealth management—especially the rapid growth of retail wealth management—has helped fill gaps in other income streams.”

Unlike China Merchants Bank’s “steady evolution,” Ping An Bank’s strategic reshaping is full of transformation pains. Once, “retail dark horse” was the most distinctive label for Ping An Bank, but with changes in the macro environment, tighter regulation, and intensifying market competition, the contribution of retail financial services to the bank’s overall net profit fell, while non-performing loans on personal loans rose and customer losses became concentrated issues. The extensive growth model could no longer continue. In 2023, after the “old hand” Ji Guangheng took over as president, the bank began launching a comprehensive strategic reform, taking “clearing out existing high-risk assets, optimizing the business structure, and upgrading refined management” as its core. It proactively moved away from the old path of scale expansion.

2025 was a key year for the reform and transformation of Ping An Bank to take hold and begin to deliver results. At the performance briefing, Ji Guangheng used the word “very difficult” multiple times to describe the pains of transformation. He said, “2025 is a very difficult year for Ping An Bank, but it is also a year in which we lay a more solid foundation for future development.” This sense of “difficulty” is directly reflected in the performance figures: the bank’s full-year operating revenue fell 10.4% year-on-year, and net profit fell 4.2% year-on-year.

But behind the data, improvement in business structure is even more critical. The bank has continued to clear high-risk consumption loans and credit card non-performing assets; the non-performing loan ratio has decreased compared with the prior year, and asset quality has been steadily optimized. At the same time, it has adhered to the strategy of “making retail stronger, making corporate business more refined, and making interbank business more specialized,” treating corporate business as the breakthrough to drive coordinated growth between retail and corporate business, gradually shedding reliance on a single business line. Ji Guangheng revealed that “since the business adjustments starting in the second half of 2023, more than 70% has been completed. Now we can say we have entered the deep water zone. ‘The hardest time has passed; reform has shown results. We will strive to achieve stabilization and a rebound in performance, and we are confident about the target of returning to growth this year.’”

If Ping An Bank’s reshaping was an active breakthrough, then Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s strategic adjustment has been a “return-to-course” journey. Looking back to 2017, a falsification case at its Chengdu branch exposed internal control vulnerabilities behind the rapid growth of its “king of corporate business.” The bad loans on the scale of 105.1k not only dragged performance but also left the bank with shifting business priorities. After that, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank at one point increased investment in retail business in an attempt to replicate peers’ successful paths. But due to the lack of core advantages, retail expansion failed to meet expectations and instead weakened its core advantage in corporate business. Between 2021 and 2023, it even saw two consecutive years of “double declines” in both revenue and net profit for three years in a row.

In 2024, after the new management team came on board, it clearly proposed a “digital intelligence” strategic transformation and established the “five major tracks” as the core areas of focus for corporate business. The effectiveness of this “return-to-course” strategy has gradually become visible: in 2025, the bank saw growth in both revenue and net profit. Its asset size first broke through CNY 10 trillion. The non-performing loan ratio fell to 1.26%, the lowest in about 11 years. The former “king of corporate business” is now regaining its core competitiveness.

Gao Zhengyang, a special researcher at Su Merchant Bank, said that from the current perspective, the core pain points of joint-stock bank transformation may mainly concentrate on the backdrop of continuing margin compression, where traditional functional positioning faces severe challenges and emerging growth engines have not yet formed enough profit support.

“While balancing the need to firmly defend strengths and fill gaps, joint-stock banks should adhere to a strategy of using strengths as the anchor and using shortboards as the breakthrough, prioritizing the consolidation of core businesses with moat attributes—such as retail or distinctive corporate business areas. At the same time, they should rely on digital means to gradually make up for shortboards, avoiding resource mismatches caused by rolling out everything across the board.” Gao Zhengyang further noted that in the long term, joint-stock banks need to further strengthen their differentiated positioning and transform into boutique banks with distinctive characteristics, building a technology-driven development model and improving the level of refined management. By reconstructing cost and risk control systems through digitalization, they can build differentiated moats on segmented tracks.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Meng Fanxia, Zhou Yili

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

Keywords: