Revenue declining consecutively yet still confident? Deep dive into Ping An Bank's 2025 annual report: This is the most stable year

How does AI · Ping An Bank achieve revenue decline while maintaining profit resilience?

Produced by | Zhongfang Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

On March 20, Ping An Bank was the first to disclose its 2025 performance report. This report, released during a critical period of industry transformation, not only highlights the operational pressures under fluctuating economic conditions but also demonstrates resilience and breakthroughs through strategic adjustments. As one of the first joint-stock banks in A-shares to publish annual reports, Ping An Bank has navigated challenges such as three consecutive years of revenue decline and regulatory penalties by focusing on structural optimization, risk management, and value enhancement, charting a path of “transformation amid pain and steady progress through reform” for high-quality development.

In 2025, Ping An Bank achieved operating income of 131.442 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.4%. This marks the third consecutive year of revenue decline and is an inevitable result of macroeconomic slowdown, declining interest rates, and business structure adjustments. From the core drivers, net interest income was 88.021 billion yuan, down 5.8% year-on-year, becoming the main drag—affected by falling loan interest rates, net interest margin narrowed to 1.78%, down 9 basis points year-on-year, and the average yield on interest-earning assets dropped from 3.97% to 3.43%, indicating a weakening of asset-side profitability. Non-interest net income was 43.421 billion yuan, down 18.5% year-on-year, mainly impacted by market fluctuations affecting bond investments and other businesses, reflecting phased adjustment pressures in non-interest income during industry transformation.

Notably, the decline in net profit has significantly narrowed. The full-year net profit attributable to shareholders was 42.633 billion yuan, down 4.2% year-on-year, a substantial improvement from the 11.6% decline in 2024. The key reason is optimized provisioning for impairments—credit and other asset impairment losses were 40.567 billion yuan, down 17.9% year-on-year, reducing by 8.861 billion yuan, which supported profit stability while maintaining risk buffers. This pattern of “revenue pressure with profit resilience” reflects the bank’s proactive adjustment of business structure and balancing short-term performance with long-term development—an intelligent choice.

The effects of business structure optimization are gradually evident. By the end of 2025, Ping An Bank’s total assets reached 59.2577 trillion yuan, up 2.7% from the previous year, achieving countercyclical expansion; corporate loans stood at 16.6355 trillion yuan, up 3.5%, with good growth in loans to tech companies and green finance, demonstrating a firm commitment to serving the real economy. Cost control on liabilities was effective, with the average interest paid on interest-bearing liabilities at 1.67%, down 47 basis points; the average interest paid on deposits was 1.65%, down 42 basis points, with a higher proportion of low-cost deposits, laying a solid foundation for stabilizing interest margins.

As Ping An Bank’s former “trump card,” retail banking experienced transformation pains in 2025, but core indicators continued to recover. Retail revenue for the year was 61.26 billion yuan, down 13.5%, mainly due to customer structure optimization and phased scale adjustments. However, net profit saw a leap—rising from 289 million yuan in 2024 to 2.683 billion yuan, driven by a reduction in impairment losses from 48.7 billion yuan to 37.6 billion yuan, a decrease of about 11.1 billion yuan, reflecting effective risk cleanup and quality improvement.

Segment-specific highlights include: auto finance loans totaling 304.801 billion yuan, up 3.7%; new personal auto loans of 72.626 billion yuan, up 13.9%, aligning with industry trends and becoming a new growth point. Wealth management grew against the trend, managing retail client assets (AUM) of 4.2384 trillion yuan, up 1.1%; private banking clients numbered 105,600, up 9.1%; income from agency personal insurance increased by 53.3%, continuously strengthening high-net-worth client segments and wealth management capabilities. Personal loan structure continued to optimize, with mortgage loans accounting for 62.9%, enhancing risk resistance; credit card bad debt ratio decreased from 2.56% to 2.24%, and consumer loan bad debt ratio from 1.35% to 1.12%, with asset quality steadily improving.

Corporate business demonstrated steady development. In 2025, operating income was 57.959 billion yuan, accounting for 44.1% of total revenue, down 9.2% year-on-year, mainly due to industry cycles and customer structure adjustments, but the customer base remained solid—96.60 million corporate clients, up 13.2%; total strategic client loans at the head office level reached 373.129 billion yuan, up 20.5%, with increasing client stickiness.

Support in key sectors intensified. Focusing on manufacturing, digital industries, healthcare, and energy, the bank optimized asset allocation, with loans to key industries increasing by 50.146 billion yuan from the previous year, creating differentiated competitive advantages. Inclusive finance and tech finance achieved notable results: new inclusive micro and small enterprise loans of 286.126 billion yuan, up 29.5%; the weighted average interest rate on new loans decreased by 0.05 percentage points, balancing expansion, price reduction, and risk control; tech clients numbered 31,917, up 21.1%, with tech loans totaling 306.582 billion yuan, up 9.8%, enabling the development of new productive forces. Supply chain finance and cross-border finance grew rapidly, with supply chain financing of 1.9679 trillion yuan, up 23.1%; cross-border trade financing of 325.965 billion yuan, up 30.1%, supporting enterprise expansion.

In 2025, Ping An Bank maintained a prudent risk management stance, with overall asset quality stable. The non-performing loan ratio was 1.05%, a slight decrease of 0.01 percentage points from the previous year, below industry average; loans overdue over 60 days had a deviation of 0.67, and those overdue over 90 days had a deviation of 0.56, indicating strict asset authenticity and quality control. By business segment, personal loan NPL ratio was 1.23%, down 0.16 percentage points; mortgage NPL ratio decreased from 0.47% to 0.28%, with continued risk mitigation.

Targeted handling of key risk areas was implemented. The balance of corporate real estate loans was 210.181 billion yuan, accounting for 12.6% of corporate loans, with NPL ratio rising from 1.79% to 2.22%, mainly due to industry adjustments but relatively stable—development loans for real estate projects totaled 65.3 billion yuan, only 1.9% of total loans, mainly secured by mature properties, with high proportions of operational property and M&A loans, making risks controllable. As of the end of 2025, restructured loans totaled 41.118 billion yuan, up 9.2%, with risks being gradually resolved through extensions and repayment arrangements, ensuring asset quality stability.

Adequate risk buffers remain. The provision coverage ratio was 220.88%, though down 29.83 percentage points from the previous year, still well above regulatory requirements, providing strong resilience against potential risks and smoothing performance fluctuations. The core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio increased by 0.24 percentage points to 9.36%, continuously strengthening capital strength to meet regulatory and business needs.

In 2025, Ping An Bank prioritized compliance and risk prevention. The bank received 64 penalties totaling 40.3669 million yuan. Despite regulatory sanctions, overall compliance management continued to strengthen. On March 20, the Jingzhou Regulatory Branch issued a penalty of 1.05 million yuan to Jingzhou Branch for issues including inadequate pre-loan investigation, post-loan management, and misappropriation of funds. This penalty served as a precise reminder from regulators and an important opportunity for Ping An Bank to improve internal controls and address management gaps.

In recent years, Ping An Bank has continuously advanced its compliance system, strengthened employee conduct management, optimized full-process control from pre- to post-loan, increased compliance training and accountability, and embedded a compliance culture throughout business operations. Digital tools have enhanced risk identification, early warning, and handling capabilities, building a “full staff, full process, all-round” compliance management system to safeguard steady business development.

In 2025, Ping An Bank remained true to its original mission amid transformation pains, actively seeking change. It faced challenges such as revenue decline and risk management but seized opportunities in structural optimization, risk cleanup, and capacity enhancement to lay a solid foundation for future growth. Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, Ping An Bank will further accelerate strategic transformation to build sustainable core competitiveness.

1. Deepen retail transformation, focus on value enhancement. Continue optimizing customer structure, strengthen private banking and wealth management, expand auto and consumer finance, shifting from “scale-driven” to “value-driven” growth, restoring retail growth momentum, and reshaping core advantages.

2. Strengthen corporate banking, empower the real economy. Focus on national strategies and industry trends, increase investments in tech, green, and inclusive finance, optimize services for key industries and clients, and develop a differentiated, professional corporate service system.

3. Enhance risk control, solidify compliance. Continuously improve risk identification, measurement, and disposal systems, precisely prevent risks in real estate and local government debt, increase efforts in bad asset recovery, and use regulatory penalties as opportunities to rectify internal control gaps, strengthen employee conduct, and ensure compliance is deeply integrated with business growth.

4. Promote digital transformation, improve operational efficiency. Leverage technology to develop business, deepen digital platform construction, optimize online services like “Ping An Pocket Bank,” enhance digital marketing, risk control, and operations, reduce costs, improve service efficiency, and build a technology-driven core competitiveness.

In 2025, Ping An Bank’s performance reflects the broader transformation of China’s banking industry—facing macroeconomic pressures and actively pursuing reform. Three years of revenue decline are an inevitable pain from interest rate declines and structural adjustments; regulatory penalties of over 40 million yuan serve as precise reminders of stricter supervision and compliance. Yet, the data also show positive changes in asset quality, risk buffers, customer structure, and key business areas, demonstrating the bank’s “stability first, progress amid change” management wisdom.

The road of transformation is long and challenging, but perseverance will lead to success. Moving forward, Ping An Bank will stay true to its core mission of serving the real economy, deepen strategic reforms, strengthen risk management, and advance technological empowerment. With resolve and innovation, it will navigate challenges, achieve high-quality development, and contribute more of Ping An’s wisdom and solutions to China’s banking transformation.