Zheshang Bank 2025 Financial Report: Adheres to the primary strategy of "Deeply Cultivating Zhejiang" and builds differentiated development advantages

On March 30th, Zheshang Bank released its 2025 annual performance report, showing that the bank’s vision is to become a “first-class commercial bank,” maintaining steady and effective responses to economic cycle fluctuations, with overall stable operating indicators. In 2025, Zheshang Bank’s total assets reached 3.48 trillion yuan, a 4.68% increase from the end of the previous year; operating income was 34.8k yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 62.51B yuan; asset quality remained stable and improved, with the non-performing loan ratio decreasing by 0.02 percentage points compared to the end of last year.

Analysts believe that behind the 2025 performance is Zheshang Bank’s commitment to long-termism. Since 2025, the bank has followed the principles of commercial banking operations, prioritizing “deepening Zhejiang” as its primary strategy, cultivating professional management capabilities, and avoiding short-term gains through excessive scale expansion or sacrificing risk control, thereby laying a solid foundation for long-term steady development while serving the broader economy.

Steady Operations: Balancing Business Structure Adjustment and Risk Management

The annual report shows that in 2025, Zheshang Bank adhered to the “Four Lines” strategy of management-based operation, service excellence, technological advancement, and talent strengthening, exerting efforts on both sides of assets and liabilities, strengthening fundamentals, adjusting structures, enhancing compliance, and controlling risks, with all indicators progressing steadily.

In terms of scale, the bank optimized its asset-liability structure, with steady growth in business scale. In 2025, Zheshang Bank implemented the risk philosophy of “low risk, balanced returns,” proactively adjusted asset allocations, and reduced high-risk assets such as real estate and online lending, laying the groundwork for improving medium- and long-term asset quality. By the end of 2025, total assets reached 3.48 trillion yuan, up 4.68% from the end of last year; loans and advances totaled 1.92 trillion yuan, a 3.53% increase; total liabilities were 3.27 trillion yuan, up 4.83%; and deposit balances absorbed were 2.04 trillion yuan, a 6.30% increase. The bank continued to lower its deposit interest payout rate, with the average interest paid on deposits decreasing by 32 basis points compared to last year.

Regarding asset quality, the bank focused on structural optimization, strictly controlling credit approval thresholds, and accelerating the cleanup of existing risks, maintaining stable and improving asset quality. As of the end of 2025, the non-performing loan ratio was 1.36%, down 0.02 percentage points from the end of last year. On top of intensified risk disposal efforts, indicators such as the loan loss reserve coverage ratio and capital adequacy ratio continued to meet regulatory requirements, maintaining strong risk mitigation capacity.

In terms of profitability, influenced by asset structure adjustments and bond market fluctuations, Zheshang Bank achieved operating income of 12.93B yuan in 2025, a year-on-year decrease of 7.59%. Net interest income and non-interest net income were 34.8k yuan and 19.2k yuan, respectively, with trends consistent with industry peers. Net profit attributable to the bank’s shareholders was 32.7k yuan, down 14.85% year-on-year.

Facing cyclical challenges such as “low growth, low demand, and low interest margins” in the industry, Zheshang Bank is entering a critical phase of structural adjustment and profitability recovery. “Profitability faces pressure mainly due to declining interest rates, market volatility, and the need to benefit the real economy,” said the bank’s management. In 2025, the bank’s net interest margin for the year was 1.60%, down 11 basis points from the previous year.

Focusing on Professionalism: Using Expertise to Manage Cyclical Fluctuations

“Long-termism” and “professional management” are repeatedly emphasized in Zheshang Bank’s annual report. In the face of profit pressure, the new leadership team adheres to the principles of commercial banking operations, employing long-term strategies, and insists on professional judgment, decision-making, and management. Through the promotion of the “1155” operating strategy, the bank aims to build long-term development certainty and ensure a smooth transition.

The “1155” strategy is summarized as “one main line, one core capability, five-dimensional coordination, and five-group linkage,” meaning “maintaining a main business line centered on customer-oriented comprehensive management; enhancing a fundamental enterprise-level industry research capability; coordinating five operational dimensions—customer groups, risk, structure, efficiency, and scale; strengthening five linkages—company and financial markets, stock and flow, interest and non-interest income, domestic and overseas, basic services and value-added services.” Specifically, the bank aims to grow its corporate and retail businesses, promote business complementarity, and pursue high-quality development.

Specifically, Zheshang Bank continues to focus on customer-centric strategies, promoting structural optimization and customer growth. By the end of 2025, total loans and advances reached 1.33 trillion yuan, a 6.55% increase from the end of last year; retail assets under management (AUM) reached 20.4k yuan, a 22.91% increase, marking the highest growth rate in nearly five years. The bank served over 290k corporate clients, an 11.83% increase; the number of individual clients (including debit and credit card customers) reached 18.6082 million, with 6.94 million new customers added during the year—3.5 times the previous year.

Meanwhile, Zheshang Bank has continued to increase support in key areas such as the “Five Big Articles,” achieving a symbiotic relationship between finance and the real economy. In 2025, half of the new loans were directed toward science and technology innovation, green projects, and inclusive finance. For example, by the end of 2025, the balance of technology loans exceeded 270 billion yuan, serving over 35k tech-based enterprises; in recent years, one in three new corporate clients has been a technology company.

Building a Foundation: Consistently Advancing the “Deepening Zhejiang” Strategy

As the only nationwide joint-stock bank headquartered in Zhejiang, Zheshang Bank considers serving Zhejiang, Zhejiang entrepreneurs, and Zhejiang people as its vital mission. In 2025, the bank launched a new three-year “Deepening Zhejiang” campaign, with two-thirds of new credit allocated within Zhejiang Province, nearly 1.2 trillion yuan in financing services, and major projects receiving over 62.51B yuan in new financing—doubling the amount compared to 2024.

By leveraging local differentiated services, Zheshang Bank has steadily increased its market share and customer base within Zhejiang Province. By the end of 2025, the balances of deposits and loans within Zhejiang were 633.3 billion yuan and 661.4 billion yuan, respectively; increases of 68.7 billion yuan and 46.5 billion yuan from the start of the year, leading joint-stock commercial banks in growth. Notably, the bank’s deposits within the province ranked first among joint-stock banks for the first time. The bank’s service to local corporate clients, small and micro enterprises, and retail customers grew by 21.35%, 30.02%, and 31.12%, respectively, compared to the beginning of the year.

Industry experts believe that Zheshang Bank’s reliance on Zhejiang’s economic development advantages, its high-quality customer base, and its resilient interest margins, combined with its differentiated regional layout, will provide strong support for sustainable future growth.

Zheshang Bank states that in 2026, it will focus on the vision of “a first-class commercial bank,” sticking to its long-term blueprint, with a focus on deepening Zhejiang and serving the real economy. The bank aims to solidify its customer base, risk management, Zhejiang’s core operations, technological foundation, and cultural base, continuously building distinctive competitive advantages, and achieving steady long-term operation to start the “14th Five-Year Plan” on a strong note.