Since the beginning of this year, penalties have exceeded 2 million yuan! What is the reason behind Qingdao Bank repeatedly receiving fines?

Ask AI · Why does the high growth of Qingdao Bank’s loans come with compliance loopholes?

Recently, two branches of Qingdao Bank were fined a total of 600k yuan, mainly due to inadequate unified credit management for group clients. Since the beginning of this year, the bank has been fined a total of 600k yuan.

Investment Time Network, Punctuation Finance Researcher Tian Wenhui

Qingdao Bank Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Qingdao Bank, 002948.SZ) has been repeatedly penalized by financial regulators and the People’s Bank of China this year, with total fines exceeding 2 million yuan. The bank needs to carefully balance growth scale and compliance management.

According to information released on the official website of the State Financial Supervision and Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Financial Regulatory Bureau) on April 3, the Linyi Regulatory Branch of the Financial Regulatory Bureau decided to fine Qingdao Bank’s Linyi Branch 300k yuan and Linyi Lanshan Branch 300k yuan, mainly due to inadequate unified credit management for group clients or insufficient verification of the authenticity of trade backgrounds in bank acceptance bills.

Earlier this year, the bank was already fined for violations related to loan business and bank acceptance bill business.

According to information released on the official website of the Financial Regulatory Bureau on January 26, the Shandong Regulatory Bureau of the Financial Regulatory Bureau decided to fine Qingdao Bank’s Jinan Branch 650k yuan, mainly because of negligence in managing bank acceptance bill deposits and failure to check and supervise the use of working capital loans.

According to Qingdao Bank’s 2025 annual report, by the end of that year, the total customer loan amount increased by 16.53% year-on-year, far exceeding the industry growth rate. The growth rate of bill discounting was even higher at 30.62%.

In terms of performance, in 2025, the bank’s operating income increased by 7.97% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the parent increased by 21.66%, far surpassing the 2.33% year-on-year growth rate of commercial banks’ net profits during the same period. However, the bank’s non-interest net income and fee and commission net income declined year-on-year, with wealth management fee income dropping by 21.87%.

By the end of 2025, Qingdao Bank’s capital adequacy ratio and core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio were 13.37% and 8.67%, respectively, both declining year-on-year.

Qingdao Bank plans to distribute a cash dividend of 1.80 yuan (including tax) per 10 shares for 2025, with a total cash dividend of 2.41M yuan and a dividend payout ratio of 21.15%. Despite high net profit growth, its dividend payout ratio remains relatively low among A-share listed banks that have published annual reports so far.

Investment Time Network and Punctuation Finance Researcher sent communication outlines regarding the above regulatory penalties and the decline in non-interest income, but have not yet received a reply as of press time.

Over 2 million yuan in fines this year

Since the beginning of this year, Qingdao Bank has been fined multiple times by financial regulators and the People’s Bank of China, totaling 300k yuan.

On April 3, the official website of the Financial Regulatory Bureau announced that the Linyi Regulatory Branch decided to fine Qingdao Bank’s Linyi Branch 300k yuan mainly due to inadequate unified credit management for group clients; and fined Qingdao Bank’s Linyi Lanshan Branch 300,000 yuan mainly due to insufficient verification of the authenticity of trade backgrounds in bank acceptance bills.

This is not the first time this year that the bank has been involved in penalties related to loan business and bank acceptance bill violations.

According to information released on the official website of the Financial Regulatory Bureau on January 26, the Shandong Regulatory Bureau of the Financial Regulatory Bureau decided to fine Qingdao Bank’s Jinan Branch 650,000 yuan, mainly because of negligence in managing bank acceptance bill deposits and failure to check and supervise the use of working capital loans.

According to Qingdao Bank’s 2025 annual report, by the end of that year, the total customer loan amount increased by 16.53% year-on-year, far exceeding the 7.24% growth rate of commercial bank loans during the same period. Among them, corporate loans increased by 22.49% year-on-year.

In recent years, Qingdao Bank’s loan growth has been on the rise, while the industry has shown a downward trend. From the end of 2022 to the end of 2024, the year-on-year growth rates of Qingdao Bank’s total loans were 10.17%, 11.55%, and 13.53%, respectively, compared to 10.87%, 10.84%, and 7.61% for commercial banks.

In terms of asset quality, at the end of 2025, Qingdao Bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 0.97%, down 0.17 percentage points year-on-year. However, the non-performing loan ratio for retail loans increased year-on-year, and among corporate loans, the non-performing loan ratio for wholesale and retail industries was 1.44%, up 0.18 percentage points.

Regarding bank acceptance bill business, at the end of 2025, the bank’s credit commitments for bank acceptance bills increased by 15.95% year-on-year. During the same period, bill discounting increased by 30.62%, far exceeding the loan total growth rate. Qingdao Bank stated that during the reporting period, the bank actively responded to policy guidance, increased support for supply chains across industries through bill business, and significantly expanded bill scale.

According to data published on the People’s Bank of China’s official website, at the end of 2025, the balance of commercial draft acceptance in the bill market increased by 7.2% year-on-year; the balance of discounting increased by 11.2%.

In addition to continuous fines from financial regulators, Qingdao Bank also received the No. 1 penalty notice from the Qingdao branch of the People’s Bank of China this year.

According to information released on the official website of the People’s Bank of China on February 14, on February 12, the Qingdao branch of the People’s Bank of China decided to issue a warning to Qingdao Bank and impose a fine of 1.161 million yuan mainly due to violations of account management regulations and failure to report suspicious transactions as required.

Fee income from wealth management business drops over 20%

Qingdao Bank’s performance growth this year has significantly outpaced the industry, mainly due to scale-driven increases in interest income, while non-interest income declined year-on-year. Among them, fee income from wealth management business dropped sharply.

According to Qingdao Bank’s 2025 annual report, the bank’s operating income for that year was 1.05B yuan, up 7.97% year-on-year. Despite revenue growth, operating expenses slightly decreased by 2% year-on-year, resulting in a net profit attributable to the parent of 2.41M yuan, up 21.66%.

However, non-interest net income declined by 3.34% year-on-year, with fee and commission income down 3.84%. Among fee and commission income, wealth management fee income decreased by 21.87%, mainly due to bond market fluctuations. The subsidiary Qingyin Wealth Management strengthened market risk management and optimized bond asset allocation, but structural factors such as a high proportion of fixed income assets constrained the growth, leading to a certain contraction in wealth management fee income.

In 2025, Qingdao Bank’s net interest income increased by 12.11% year-on-year, mainly driven by a scale increase of 1.43 billion yuan, offset by a decrease of 234 million yuan due to interest rate factors, totaling an increase of 300k yuan. During the same period, the net interest margin was 1.66%, down 0.07 percentage points year-on-year.

Correspondingly, Qingdao Bank’s loans grew rapidly in 2025, which also put pressure on capital adequacy ratios. By the end of 2025, the capital adequacy ratio and core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio were 13.37% and 8.67%, respectively, down 0.43 and 0.44 percentage points year-on-year.

Comparison of loan growth rates between Qingdao Bank and commercial banks in recent years

Data source: Qingdao Bank Annual Report, Official Website of the Financial Regulatory Bureau

Keywords for Investment Timing: Qingdao Bank (002948.SZ)