Seven joint-stock bank credit card portfolios shrink in size; bad debt clearance helps many banks improve asset quality

Ask AI · What are the driving factors behind the transformation of the credit card industry prioritizing quality?

By 2025, the domestic credit card industry remains in a deep adjustment cycle.

Southern Metropolis Bay Finance Society reporters analyzed annual report data from 9 A-share listed joint-stock banks and found that the credit card business of joint-stock banks shows a clear structural differentiation: over 70% of banks have seen their loan balances shrink year-on-year, with only two banks achieving countercyclical growth; asset quality varies greatly, with most banks steadily clearing risks, and the non-performing loan ratio of credit cards showing a “four decline, two rise” situation.

Meanwhile, credit card transaction volume and business income are generally under pressure, with some banks openly stating at earnings conferences that they are proactively shrinking and prioritizing risk control. The industry is shifting from a phase of “land grabbing” to a new stage of “quality first” in stock competition.

7 banks’ credit card****loan balances shrink

From the annual report data disclosed by 9 A-share listed joint-stock banks for 2025, the changes in credit card loan balances directly reflect the deep adjustment trend in the industry. Southern Metropolis Bay Finance Society reporters’ data shows that in 2025, the credit card business of joint-stock banks continued the industry-wide shrinking trend, with 7 banks experiencing varying degrees of decline in their credit card loan balances compared to the end of the previous year. The “shrinking volume” characteristic of the industry is becoming more prominent, with only Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Zheshang Bank achieving positive growth, further deepening the stock competition pattern.

In terms of total scale, the leading banks’ industry positions remain solid. China Merchants Bank continued to lead joint-stock banks with a credit card loan balance of 463.09B yuan, the only institution with a balance exceeding 900 billion yuan, demonstrating strong scale resilience amid the overall downward cycle of the industry; China CITIC Bank follows closely with 432.46B yuan, maintaining a core position in the second tier; Minsheng Bank ranks third with 477.25B yuan, but its scale also contracted significantly, with credit card overdraft balances dropping from 432.46B yuan at the end of 2024 to 330.89B yuan, a decrease of 40.77B yuan for the year, the largest absolute reduction among the 9 banks, indicating significant scale pressure.

From the perspective of year-on-year change, the credit card loan balances of joint-stock banks show a clear pattern of “mainly shrinking, with few increasing,” highlighting differences in strategic adjustment paces among banks. Industrial Bank and Huaxia Bank both saw their scales shrink by over 10%.

Data shows that at the end of 2025, Industrial Bank’s credit card loan balance was 151.09B yuan, a decrease of 389.33B yuan from the end of 2024, a 10.97% decline year-on-year, the largest among joint-stock banks; Huaxia Bank’s balance was 370.22B yuan, down 10.75% year-on-year, following closely. Minsheng Bank, Ping An Bank, and China CITIC Bank saw declines in the 5%-10% range, at 9.38%, 6.79%, and 5.24% respectively, with moderate scale adjustments in the industry middle tier; China Merchants Bank and China Everbright Bank both saw year-on-year decreases of 0.92% and 1.89%, respectively, maintaining relatively stable business scales.

In the context of collective balance sheet contraction, the performance of the growth camp is particularly eye-catching. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank became the institution with the largest expansion effort among joint-stock banks, with year-end credit card and overdraft balances of 33.68B yuan, a 5.16% increase from 11.07B yuan at the end of the previous year, achieving countercyclical expansion amid the industry downturn; Zheshang Bank’s balance of 13.52B yuan increased slightly by 0.90%, continuing a steady growth trend, making it one of only two institutions among joint-stock banks to achieve positive growth along with Pudong Development Bank.

Industry insiders point out that the collective balance sheet contraction of joint-stock banks’ credit card business in 2025 results from multiple factors resonating. On one hand, the recovery of consumption has not met expectations, residents’ leverage ratios remain under pressure, and the continued diversion of credit card scenarios by internet consumer loans and other competing products leads to overall weak demand; on the other hand, banks are proactively tightening credit, reducing high-risk exposures, coupled with ongoing regulatory compliance upgrades, jointly driving the industry from “scale expansion” to “quality first” transformation.

Pudong Development Bank’s annual report states that during the reporting period, the bank strengthened digital intelligence empowerment, integrated quality improvement in operations, adhered to the development concept of integrated card and banking, and innovated five major applications: loan and deposit integration, payroll and card integration, card and loan integration, inclusive finance integration, and mortgage integration. It deepened the scene-based marketing capabilities in retail, micro-loans, and mortgage sectors, focusing on customer group management, including high-quality retail customers, running friends, silver-haired customers, and cultural groups.

Zheshang Bank’s annual report states that its credit card (consumer finance) business maintained a “small and beautiful” development positioning during the reporting period, closely aligned with residents’ consumer finance needs, deepened product innovation and service upgrades, fully promoted car installment business, and continued to enhance market competitiveness.

Multiple banks’ credit card****non-performing rate declines

Among the 9 A-share listed joint-stock banks’ 2025 annual reports, only some banks fully disclosed credit card non-performing loan data.

Based on the disclosed data, Southern Metropolis Bay Finance Society reporters observed that, from the perspective of non-performing loan balances, 5 banks with available data show a clear pattern of “one rise, four declines,” with Industrial Bank experiencing the largest risk reduction.

At the end of 2025, Industrial Bank’s non-performing credit card loan balance was 2.45B yuan, down 9.06B yuan from 7.49B yuan at the end of 2024, a decrease of 18.14% year-on-year, the largest reduction among joint-stock banks; risk clearance was highly effective.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s non-performing balance decreased from 1.57B yuan to 16.74B yuan, a reduction of 15.66B yuan, down 17.32% year-on-year, achieving significant shrinkage of non-performing assets while maintaining growth, highlighting strong risk control. China Merchants Bank and China CITIC Bank also saw slight declines in non-performing balances, decreasing by 187 million yuan and 119 million yuan respectively, with declines of 1.13% and 0.97%, maintaining their basic business levels while gradually optimizing asset quality.

However, Minsheng Bank was the only one among the listed banks to see its non-performing balance increase year-on-year, with continued pressure on asset quality. At the end of 2025, Minsheng Bank’s non-performing loan balance reached 1.07B yuan, up 1.071 billion yuan from 18.04B yuan at the end of 2024, a 6.84% increase.

From the perspective of non-performing loan ratio, the asset quality differentiation among joint-stock banks further widened.

China Merchants Bank’s credit card non-performing loan ratio remained the lowest at 1.74%, a slight decrease of 0.01 percentage points from 2024; Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s non-performing rate improved the most, dropping from 2.45% at the end of 2024 to 1.92%, a decrease of 0.53 percentage points, with the significant reduction in non-performing balances reflecting effective risk transformation. Ping An Bank and Industrial Bank also saw steady declines in non-performing rates, from 2.56% to 2.24% (a 0.32 percentage point drop) and from 3.64% to 3.34% (a 0.3 percentage point drop), respectively.

Meanwhile, Minsheng Bank’s credit card non-performing loan ratio rose to 3.87%, up 0.59 percentage points from 3.28% at the end of 2024, ranking first among disclosed banks and showing a “double increase” in both non-performing rate and balance, indicating worsening asset quality. China CITIC Bank’s non-performing rate also increased from 2.5% to 2.62%, up 0.12 percentage points year-on-year.

Minsheng Bank’s annual report mentions that as of the end of the reporting period, its non-performing loans were mainly concentrated in the headquarters, Yangtze River Delta, and western regions, with total non-performing loans of 13.67B yuan, 97.45M yuan, and 10.55 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 63.87% of total non-performing loans, with the headquarters’ non-performing loans mainly from credit card business.

Credit card****transaction and income generally under pressure

In addition to credit card loan scale and non-performing loan scale, credit card transaction volume and consumption also reflect current market demand and activity levels. Data disclosed by multiple banks show that some banks are also under pressure.

For example, as an industry leader, China Merchants Bank reported that by the end of the year, its circulating credit cards reached 70.11M, with 70.106 million cardholders. In 2025, the total credit card transaction volume was 4.082 trillion yuan, down 7.62% year-on-year. Correspondingly, income declined: interest income from credit cards was 4.08T yuan, down 7.30%, and non-interest income was 20.35B yuan, down 15.73%.

“We observe that this year, the risk in the retail lending market is still rising, and credit card asset quality also faces some pressure. We will take active measures to control retail credit risks to keep retail credit quality basically manageable,” said Xu Mingjie, Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of China Merchants Bank. He added that the bank will optimize its business structure, stick to collateral-based lending, raise loan approval standards—especially for consumer loans—and dynamically adjust micro-loan standards, continuously optimize customer groups, and adopt proactive early warning, early exposure, early resolution, and early disposal strategies to reduce retail credit risks and improve asset quality.

“Last year, credit card balances declined, but I believe this is part of a steady, low-volatility strategy—selecting good customers to prevent risks. We are willing to accept the decline in revenue contribution to better control asset quality, so our credit card asset quality has remained relatively stable,” said Wang Liang, President of China Merchants Bank.

Huaxia Bank’s credit card business showed a more obvious decline. By the end of the reporting period, the bank had issued 43.322 million credit cards, a 3.20% increase from the previous year-end, but total transaction volume was 43.32M yuan, down 14.29% year-on-year. Credit card business income was 710.33B yuan, down 15.65%, significantly affected by industry downturn pressure.

Additionally, China CITIC Bank disclosed in its annual report that in 2025, the bank’s card service fee income was 14.46B yuan, down 10.26% year-on-year, mainly due to shrinking credit card transaction volume across the market. However, the bank actively launched diversified credit card products to meet customer needs, and transaction volume improved in the second half of the year. Data shows that by the end of 2025, the bank had issued 129 million credit cards, a 4.60% increase from the previous year-end.

Overall, the core feature of joint-stock banks’ credit card business in 2025 is a continued overall scale contraction, with the industry-wide “shrinking volume” trend throughout the year. Over 70% of banks saw their credit card loan balances decline year-on-year, with only a few achieving countercyclical growth. The era of aggressive expansion has come to an end. Regarding asset quality, most banks actively increased efforts to clear non-performing assets over the past year, reducing high-risk exposures and optimizing customer structures, effectively driving non-performing loan ratios down and gradually showing risk control results. The overall credit card business is moving toward “quality first, steady development.”