The six major state-owned banks last year earned over 3.9 billion yuan per day, with five of them continuing to see a slight decline in non-performing loan ratios.

Ask AI · Why are non-performing loans rising in sync behind the growth in net profit at China’s six state-owned big banks?

The six state-owned big banks combined are earning over 3.9 billion yuan per day in 2025.

China’s six state-owned banks (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, and Bank of Communications) have turned in their 2025 results: total net profit attributable to shareholders (the same applies below) amounted to 1,424.56 billion yuan, up further from 1,401.429 billion yuan in 2024.

On asset quality, at the end of 2025, the balance of non-performing loans at China’s six state-owned big banks was higher than in 2024 across the board; the non-performing loan ratios at the five banks other than Postal Savings Bank continued to edge down slightly.

Revenue collectively delivers positive growth

Net profit and revenue at China’s six state-owned big banks in 2025

In terms of profitability, “the universe’s No. 1 bank” ICBC remains the strongest. In 2025, it recorded net profit attributable to shareholders of 368.562 billion yuan. CCB (338.906 billion yuan) came next, followed by ABC and BOC, which posted net profit attributable to shareholders of 291.041 billion yuan and 243.021 billion yuan, respectively, in 2025. BOCOM and Postal Savings Bank achieved net profit of 95.622 billion yuan and 87.404 billion yuan, respectively.

In 2025, all six state-owned big banks delivered positive growth in both net profit and operating revenue; while in 2024, ICBC and CCB saw slight growth in net profit but a year-on-year decline in operating revenue.

On net profit growth rates, ABC (3.2%) had the highest net profit growth rate in 2025. BOC (2.18%) and BOCOM (2.18%) followed closely. ICBC, CCB, and Postal Savings Bank’s year-on-year growth rates in net profit attributable to shareholders for 2025 were 0.74%, 0.99%, and 1.07%, respectively—each higher than in 2024.

Collective rise in the balance of non-performing loans

In terms of asset quality, the balance of non-performing loans at China’s six state-owned big banks rose across the board. Except for Postal Savings Bank, the non-performing loan ratios of the other five banks edged down slightly, tracking the same trend as in 2024.

Non-performing loan situation at China’s six state-owned big banks in 2025

In 2025, the state-owned big bank with the largest increase in non-performing loans was Agricultural Bank of China. Its balance of non-performing loans increased by 21.291 billion yuan over the full year to reach 343.456 billion yuan. ICBC, CCB, and BOC saw broadly comparable increases in non-performing loans last year, with increases of 19.555 billion yuan, 19.291 billion yuan, and 19.255 billion yuan, respectively, reaching 399.013 billion yuan, 363.982 billion yuan, and 288.036 billion yuan.

Postal Savings Bank was the only state-owned bank whose non-performing loans increased in both directions last year. As of the end of 2025, Postal Savings Bank’s balance of non-performing loans was 91.524 billion yuan, up by 11.205 billion yuan from the end of 2024; the non-performing loan ratio was 0.95%, up by 0.05 percentage points from the end of the previous year.

At a performance meeting, the bank’s vice president and chief risk officer, Yao Hong, said that Postal Savings Bank’s measures related to asset quality management and control for loans to individuals and small businesses were solid and effective. The continued optimization of the risk customer mix, together with the gradual emergence of effects from the national series of policies that followed, and with the macro environment stabilizing, improvements were seen in residents’ and enterprises’ debt repayment capacity. Based on these analyses, it is expected that the rate of new non-performing loan formation for Postal Savings Bank’s personal and small business loans in 2026 will level off and improve.

At the earnings release meeting, multiple large banks responded to the retail-loan risk issues that the market has been focused on.

In a performance meeting, ICBC’s vice president Wang Jingwu said that the asset quality of ICBC’s personal loans has long been relatively strong. However, over the past two years, influenced by multiple factors such as growth during the economic transition, adjustments in the real estate market, and temporary imbalances in supply and demand, the non-performing loan ratio entered an upward channel in the short term—this is basically consistent with the trend across the industry. But China’s economic fundamentals are steady, it has strong resilience, and significant potential. The supporting conditions for a long-term favorable outlook and the underlying positive trend have not changed. In the future, the risk in personal loans is controllable.

CCB’s vice president Li Jianjiang said that, in the face of the rising risk situation appearing in the retail sector in recent years, the bank actively responded to changes, sought solutions through change, and took strong measures to optimize the retail business credit risk management mechanism. It strengthened risk checks and balances at key stages of the credit process and advanced the implementation of centralized credit risk control for retail loans. In 2025, the bank’s multiple risk-control measures showed results, with the year-on-year narrowing in the increase of the non-performing loan ratio for personal loans (non-performing loan ratio 1.19%, up 0.21 percentage points from the start of the year, and up 0.11 percentage points less year-on-year). From the current operating outlook, risk prevention and control in the retail sector will remain one of the key focuses. As each management mechanism and control measure is further implemented and refined, asset quality overall is expected to remain stable.

Net interest margin spread: the decline narrows

China’s six state-owned big banks saw their net interest margins decline further in 2025.

At the end of 2025, the net interest yield of China’s six state-owned banks (ICBC, CCB, ABC, BOC, Postal Savings Bank, and BOCOM) was 1.28%, 1.34%, 1.28%, 1.26%, 1.66%, and 1.20%, respectively—down by 14 BP, 17 BP, 14 BP, 14 BP, 21 BP, and 7 BP, respectively. In 2024, the net interest margins of the above six banks fell by 19 BP, 19 BP, 18 BP, 19 BP, 14 BP, and 1 BP, respectively.

At the earnings release meeting, ICBC’s vice president Yao Mingde said that the basic judgment is that in 2026 the interest margin is likely to show an “L-shaped” pattern. In 2025, ICBC’s net interest margin was 1.28%, down 14 BP from 2024. The downtrend is gradually narrowing; the year-on-year decline also narrowed by 5 BP. Although it is still declining, the pace of decline is slowing, and this trend is sustainable. For example, if one does not consider a further significant adjustment to the LPR and deposit listing rates, it is expected that ICBC’s net interest income will turn positive year-on-year this year and reach a turning point, and the amount by which the net interest margin declines will further converge compared with 2025.

CCB’s net interest margin in 2025 was 1.34%, down 17 basis points from the previous year. The annual decline narrowed year-on-year by 2 basis points, and the quarterly decline also showed a marginal trend toward narrowing.

CCB’s chief financial officer, Sheng Liurong, pointed out that the trend in 2026’s interest margin (NIM) can be viewed from both macro and micro perspectives. From the macro perspective, the People’s Bank of China’s 2025 Q4 China Monetary Policy Implementation Report stated that it is necessary to improve the market-based interest-rate formation and transmission mechanism, give full play to the role of the market interest-rate pricing self-discipline mechanism, strengthen the implementation and supervision of interest rate policies, and reduce banks’ cost of liabilities. From the micro perspective, CCB will continue to optimize the structure of assets and liabilities, continuously improve its ability to manage pricing by customer segmentation, and further enhance operating and management efficiency. CCB is confident that through good proactive management, it will continue to maintain its leading advantage in NIM among comparable peers.