2025 Brokerage Performance Report Shines: 26 Firms Achieve Double Growth in Revenue and Net Profit, 7 Firms Join the "Double Billion Club"

In 2025, China’s domestic capital markets showed an atmosphere of prosperity. The Shanghai Composite Index rose by double digits over the year, and the average daily trading value of both the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets even set a new historical record. Against this backdrop, the securities industry turned in a remarkable set of results. As of March 30, 26 listed brokerages and brokerage concept stocks had already released their 2025 performance figures. Overall, their performance was strong, with both revenue and net profit registering notable growth.

Judging by revenue and net profit, all 26 institutions remained profitable, and year-over-year growth has become a common trend across the industry. Data show that the 26 institutions collectively generated operating revenue of RMB 454.71 billion, up 31.93% year over year; total attributable net profit amounted to RMB 185.064 billion, up 44.61% year over year. Among them, CITIC Securities ranked first with operating revenue of RMB 74.854 billion. Guotai Huarong followed closely with RMB 63.107 billion, becoming the only two brokerages with operating revenue exceeding RMB 60 billion. In terms of attributable net profit, CITIC Securities and Guotai Huarong also led by a wide margin, reaching RMB 30.076 billion and RMB 27.809 billion respectively, making them the only two listed brokerages with attributable net profit exceeding RMB 20 billion. HuaTai Securities, GF Securities, China Galaxy, China Merchants Securities, and Oriental Fortune also delivered profits exceeding RMB 10 billion, bringing the number of institutions entering the “RMB 20 billion club” to 7. Compared with 2024, GF Securities and Oriental Fortune were the新增 members.

In terms of performance growth, Guotai Huarong and China United Minsheng, which completed integration in 2025, stood out particularly. They topped the industry both in operating revenue and attributable net profit growth. Guotai Huarong’s operating revenue and attributable net profit growth rates were 87.4% and 113.52% respectively. China United Minsheng reached 185.99% and 405.49% respectively. Besides these two institutions, the growth rates of attributable net profit at leading brokerages such as CICC and Shenwan Hongyuan were also all above 70%. Sincere Securities Co., Ltd. (Xiangcai Shares) showed high price elasticity for smaller- and mid-sized brokerage performance, with attributable net profit growth of 325.15%.

With performance continuing to rebound, most brokerage staff’s average compensation per employee also stopped the earlier downtrend and improved. According to calculations based on data from 东方财富Choice, excluding Guotai Huarong and China United Minsheng, whose figures have discrepancies due to integration reasons, among the 24 brokerages and brokerage concept stocks that have currently disclosed their 2025 annual reports, as many as 21 institutions saw their staff average compensation per employee rise year over year. The increase is mostly concentrated in the 5% to 20% range. Among them, Hua’an Securities saw the most significant increase in average compensation per employee, at 30.96%. The increases at Industrial Securities, CICC, and Zhongyuan Securities were also 26.35%, 24.4%, and 20.89% respectively. Looking at the compensation changes among the top three institutions by industry performance, the increases are all within 5%. CITIC Securities’ average compensation per employee rose from RMB 779.8 thousand in 2024 to RMB 812.8 thousand in 2025, up 4.23% year over year. HuaTai Securities rose from RMB 639.6 thousand to RMB 669.1 thousand, up 4.61%.

It is worth noting that multiple brokerages that saw a rebound in average compensation per employee in 2025 had already gone through a lengthy compensation adjustment cycle beforehand. Reviewing the data from 2021 to 2024, some brokerages’ average compensation per employee had been cut for two or three consecutive years during that period, with the overall reduction reaching as high as 40%. At the time, some analysts pointed out that, driven by increasingly stringent regulatory requirements from authorities to standardize the compensation systems of financial institutions, some brokerages adjusted their compensation structures—for example, optimizing performance appraisal mechanisms and increasing the proportion of deferred compensation. Such adjustments may have led to lower compensation paid to employees in the current period. As for the modest rebound in average compensation per employee in this round, some experts believe it is a lagging reflection of the industry’s improvement in overall sentiment, showing a relatively reasonable market-based linkage mechanism between compensation and performance. This shift helps stabilize talent pipelines, alleviates the pressure of core talent attrition caused by salary cuts in previous years, and also leaves room for the industry to attract outstanding talent.

In contrast to the rebound in average compensation per employee, in 2025 the total compensation of brokerages’ executives continued to decline. Based on the 26 listed brokerages and brokerage concept stocks that have already disclosed their results, the total executive compensation in 2025 was approximately RMB 372 million in aggregate, down 8.2% year over year—further narrowing compared with 2024. Among them, as many as 22 brokerages saw their total executive compensation decline year over year. Among the brokerages with year-over-year declines, 10 brokerages—including Shenwan Hongyuan, China Galaxy, and Hua’an Securities—had year-over-year drops in total executive compensation exceeding 20%. Shenwan Hongyuan experienced the largest decline at 37.41%. China Galaxy and Hua’an Securities’ declines also reached 30.76% and 29.21% respectively.

Regarding the “scissor gap” phenomenon between average employee compensation and total executive compensation, some analysts believe it is driven by multiple factors, including regulatory orientation and adjustments to company governance logic. In recent years, the industry’s continuing “pay caps” requirements have been gaining momentum. Executive compensation at brokerages with a background in state-owned financial central enterprises is more tightly constrained by window guidance. Executive performance-based compensation is generally deferred for 3 to 5 years. Some of the compensation paid in 2025 actually corresponds to the relatively low performance period of 2022 to 2024. Moreover, regulatory requirements link executive compensation to compliance risk control and long-term performance, so short-term profit growth may not immediately be converted into cash compensation. Some experts say this signals that brokerage compensation systems have entered a longer-term adjustment cycle—shifting from “maximizing short-term incentives” to “a long-term, steady orientation.” The divergence in compensation structures between executives and employees may become the norm. Going forward, executive compensation will rely more on long-term equity incentives, while the elasticity of employee compensation responding to business-cycle fluctuations will be enhanced.