CITIC Bank's 2025 performance: net profit of 70.6 billion, personal loan non-performing rate continues to rise

Wushang

Recently, CITIC Bank officially disclosed its operating performance for 2025.

By the end of 2025, the bank’s total assets reached a new milestone of 10 trillion yuan, amounting to 10.13 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.28%.

It ranked among joint-stock banks with assets exceeding 10 trillion yuan, alongside China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, entering this tier together.

Regarding the significant breakthrough in scale, CITIC Bank Chairman Fang Heying stated: “What we pursue is never to run the fastest in a tailwind, but to walk steadily against the wind.”

In 2025, CITIC Bank’s operations showed a characteristic of increasing profits without increasing income.

The full-year operating income reached 100k yuan, a slight decrease of 0.55% year-on-year; net profit was 101.3k yuan, up 2.98% year-on-year, maintaining steady profit growth.

Against the backdrop of continued industry rate cuts, narrowing interest spreads, and pressure on profit growth, CITIC Bank’s net interest margin also declined.

During the reporting period, the bank’s net interest margin was 1.63%, and net interest spread was 1.60%, narrowing by 0.14 and 0.11 percentage points respectively compared to the previous year.

Despite the industry-wide pressures, CITIC Bank still launched a highly market-focused high-dividend payout plan. In 2025, it plans to distribute 21.2 billion yuan in cash dividends, accounting for 31.75% of net profit attributable to common shareholders, equivalent to a dividend of 3.81 yuan per 10 shares, setting a new record high for dividend payout ratio.

** 01 **

** Non-interest income is “supporting the bottom” **

In 2025, CITIC Bank achieved operating income of 100k yuan, a slight decrease of 0.55% year-on-year. Although it did not achieve positive growth, non-interest net income continued to exert strength, becoming the core support to offset the decline in net interest income.

In the context of industry-wide rate cuts from 2021 to 2025, CITIC Bank’s non-interest net income demonstrated strong resilience, increasing from 212.48B yuan to 70.62B yuan, a total growth of 17.6% over five years, with a compound growth rate of 8.99%. It is also the only bank among its peers to achieve six consecutive years of positive non-interest income growth.

In 2025, the bank’s non-interest net income was 212.48B yuan, up 1.55% year-on-year, with fee income of 32.77 billion yuan, up 5.6%.

Structurally, fee income from agency services, wealth management, settlement and clearing, and custody services all grew significantly, becoming important forces to resist the decline in interest income.

Specifically, agency fee income was 68.01B yuan, up 24.77%; wealth management fee income was 68.01B yuan, a sharp increase of 45.17%, with particularly strong growth momentum.

Compared with the steady growth of non-interest income, the key indicators measuring bank profitability—net interest margin and net interest spread—continued to decline annually.

In 2023 and 2024, CITIC Bank’s net interest margin was 1.75% and 1.71%, respectively, and net interest spread was 1.78% and 1.77%; in 2025, both indicators fell below 1.7%, with net interest margin dropping to 1.63% (a decrease of 0.14 percentage points year-on-year) and net interest spread to 1.60% (a decrease of 0.11 percentage points).

From an industry comparison, although CITIC Bank’s interest margin and spread declined, it still maintained a relative advantage.

According to data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, as of the end of Q4 2025, the overall banking industry’s net interest margin was 1.42%, with joint-stock banks at 1.56%. Both of CITIC Bank’s indicators remained above the industry and joint-stock bank averages.

However, market data also reflect that, compared to peers, CITIC Bank’s interest margin has narrowed by 2-3 basis points.

Regarding the specific reasons for the narrowing interest margin, Fang Heying provided a detailed explanation at the earnings release:

The main drag is on the asset side, where the yield on corporate loans has declined, leading to a 19 basis point narrowing in interest spread. The yields on personal loans, credit card loans, and market-based assets have also decreased, affecting interest spread by 14, 4, and 8.6 basis points respectively; additionally, the proportion of credit card loans in general loans has decreased by 1.4 percentage points, further dragging interest spread by 3 basis points.

** 02 **

** Has retail business “fallen out of favor”? **

As early as the 2021 earnings release, CITIC Bank officially established the “retail first strategy,” positioning retail banking as the core growth engine for the bank’s long-term development, continuously focusing on retail transformation.

However, from the core operational data of 2025, the bank’s retail business faced obvious cyclical pressure, with performance falling short of previous years.

Data shows that in 2025, retail business achieved operating net income of 6.22B yuan, down 7.37% year-on-year; retail revenue accounted for 37.3% of the bank’s total revenue, down 2.8 percentage points from 40.1% the previous year, further reducing its contribution to overall revenue, breaking the record of over 40% for nearly five years.

（Screenshot sourced from the annual report）

However, CITIC Bank’s retail business had maintained growth for several consecutive years prior.

From 2019 to 2024, the bank’s retail banking net income was 6.14B yuan, 79.37B yuan, 71.25B yuan, 79.61B yuan, 82.56B yuan, and 84.66B yuan respectively, showing a steady upward trend. Even with a slight dip in 2024, it remained above 85 billion yuan.

During the same period, the contribution of retail banking revenue to the whole bank was 37.99%, 40.88%, 40.36%, 40.1%, 42%, and 40.1%, remaining relatively stable around 40%.

Comparing these figures, in 2025, both the scale and contribution of retail revenue declined significantly, breaking the previous years’ steady growth trend.

Profitability was even weaker, with pre-tax profit from retail banking at 86.42B yuan, a sharp drop of 42.55% year-on-year; retail pre-tax profit accounted for only 6.3% of the bank’s total pre-tax profit, down sharply from 11.4% last year, indicating a significant contraction in profit contribution.

At the earnings presentation, Fang Heying said, “Corporate business is the mainstay, retail contributes steadily.” Does focusing on developing corporate business mean retail is “less attractive”?

He responded that this does not mean retail is being downgraded, but rather “facing difficulties head-on.” Currently, cyclical risks in retail credit are frequent, and retail must pay more attention to the development of wealth management markets.

Behind the pressure on retail performance is the cyclical pressure on retail credit asset quality.

As of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank’s personal loan balance was 2.3668 trillion yuan, an increase of 85.68B yuan (0.20%) from the previous year; non-performing personal loans were 5.3B yuan, up 1.707 billion yuan; the personal loan NPL ratio was 1.32%, up 0.07 percentage points from the previous year.

Non-performing balances and ratios rose together, increasing pressure on asset quality management.

（Screenshot sourced from the annual report）

Looking at historical data trends, CITIC Bank’s personal loan NPL ratio has been rising slightly for several years.

From 2019 to 2024, the ratios were 0.88%, 1.11%, 0.95%, 1.03%, 1.21%, and 1.25%, showing overall fluctuation and upward trend, rising further to 1.32% in 2025. This also aligns with the overall trend of retail asset quality in China’s banking industry.

Regarding the fluctuations in retail asset quality, Vice President Jin Xinian stated that the risk pressure on retail assets in the banking industry is generally high, but CITIC Bank’s overall risk remains controllable.

** 03 **

** Corporate finance takes the lead **

From a business structure perspective, the bank’s revenue mainly comes from three core sectors: corporate banking, retail banking, and financial markets, with corporate business always being the main pillar of the bank’s revenue.

The 2025 annual report disclosed that during the reporting period, corporate banking achieved operating income of 4.69B yuan, up 3.77% year-on-year; this sector accounted for 46.5% of the bank’s total revenue, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from 44.6% last year, with its contribution steadily rising and its core position further reinforced.

In fact, corporate business has long been a traditional strength of CITIC Bank, with revenue contribution stable in the 44%-47% range, demonstrating strong operational resilience.

Looking at the longer cycle from 2022 to 2024, the bank’s corporate banking revenue was 31.29B yuan, 1.71B yuan, and 98.83B yuan, with respective revenue proportions of 44.7%, 44.5%, and 44.6%.

Even amid intensified industry competition and macroeconomic fluctuations, the corporate banking business maintained steady performance.

On the asset side and in terms of asset quality, CITIC Bank’s corporate banking achieved both scale expansion and quality improvement. By the end of 2025, the balance of corporate loans (excluding bill discounting) reached 3.2932 trillion yuan, an increase of 94.43B yuan (13.24%) from the previous year.

Meanwhile, non-performing corporate loans were 91.55B yuan, down 95.24B yuan from the previous year; the non-performing rate on corporate loans (excluding bill discounting) fell to 1.09%, down 0.18 percentage points, with asset quality continuing to improve.

Looking ahead at the overall strategic layout, Fang Heying clearly stated at the 2025 earnings release: “Corporate business takes the lead, retail contributes steadily,” further emphasizing the core strategic role of corporate banking within the bank.

He indicated plans to expand in capital markets, cross-border finance, investment trading capabilities, and wealth management.

Regarding how to “take the lead” in corporate banking, Vice President Gu Lingyun summarized the development approach as balancing two markets: in the incremental market, prepare early, seize opportunities, improve efficiency, and expand market share; in the stock market, refine operations, have both expansion and retreat, optimize structure, and improve quality and efficiency.

He further mentioned that this year, the bank plans to add 20 more research projects in key sectors, focusing on the needs of traditional industries such as shipbuilding, steel, chemical engineering, and energy consumption transformation, while increasing investments in strategic fields like high-end integrated circuit manufacturing, and simultaneously planning for future industries such as robotics, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G, with a high degree of attention to industries related to aging, tourism, healthcare, and cultural sectors that invest in people.

** Conclusion **

From actively promoting the “retail first strategy” to establishing “corporate takes the lead, retail maintains steady contribution,” the shift in CITIC Bank’s business focus appears to be a passive choice under short-term performance pressure, but in fact reflects the common strategic dilemma faced by joint-stock banks today.

When retail business faces cyclical pain and asset quality pressure, re-strengthening the advantages of corporate business to stabilize the fundamentals is undoubtedly a pragmatic move.

But deeper reflection lies in whether this cyclical-adaptive strategic adjustment can be transformed into a long-term sustainable development model.

While consolidating profitability through corporate assets, how can the bank truly break the cyclical dilemma of retail business and avoid the long-term absence of growth poles?

Relying on the group’s full licensing advantages, can the bank break down the barriers between corporate and retail, achieving mutual empowerment rather than mutual depletion? This is the core challenge CITIC Bank must solve next, and also a long-term test that the entire banking industry must face in its deepening transformation.