Breaking the 10 trillion mark for the first time! Citic Bank Chairman Fang Heying's latest statement

【Introduction】Total assets surpass 10 trillion yuan for the first time! CITIC Bank’s performance briefing has arrived, with a wealth of information.

China Fund Reporter Ma Jiaxin

On March 23, CITIC Bank held its 2025 performance briefing. At the event, CITIC Bank Chairman Fang Heying attended with the management team, responding to analysts and media on-site regarding multiple hot topics such as the bank’s strategic planning, interest margin, and asset quality, elaborating on the bank’s “balanced, steady, and sustainable” growth logic.

According to the financial report, as of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank’s total asset scale reached 10.13 trillion yuan, breaking through the 10 trillion yuan “barrier” for the first time; in terms of asset quality, during the reporting period, the bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 1.15%, achieving a decline for seven consecutive years.

Net profit growth rate ranks among the leaders in medium and large banks

The financial report shows that as of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank achieved operating income of 212.475 billion yuan, a slight decrease of 0.55% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 70.618 billion yuan, an increase of 2.98% year-on-year.

Regarding the performance for 2025, Fang Heying stated that CITIC Bank’s net profit growth rate ranks among the top in medium and large banks. Shareholders also tangibly shared in the bank’s development dividends. “Our dividend payout ratio increased by 1.25 percentage points on the high level of 2024, reaching 31.75%.”

In his view, CITIC Bank’s good net profit performance stems from multi-dimensional collaborative efforts: first, a combination of stable income and cost reduction opened up growth space; second, increased efforts to clear non-performing assets; third, a dual reduction in both volume and rate of operational costs.

“From stabilizing the interest margin to stabilizing revenue, the interest margin gradually stabilized, and the revenue decline narrowed. Among them, the release of investment trading capabilities and the continuous growth of net fee income contributed stably to the growth,” Fang Heying pointed out. In 2025, the total recovery of non-performing assets was 37.2 billion yuan, of which 12.9 billion yuan was recovered from written-off cases, and the annual loan cost rate decreased by 0.06 percentage points, making a key contribution to growth.

In terms of cost control, Fang Heying stated that CITIC Bank achieved a reduction in operational costs of 2.25 billion yuan throughout 2025, with the cost-to-income ratio decreasing by 0.88 percentage points, similarly making an important contribution to profit growth.

Achieved positive growth in non-interest income for six consecutive years

Currently, the banking industry still generally faces pressure from narrowing net interest margins, making the growth of non-interest income increasingly significant for banks. At the meeting, Fang Heying stated that in 2025, CITIC Bank’s light capital transformation direction was further validated.

He said, “Last year, CITIC Bank was the only institution among comparable peers to achieve positive growth in non-interest income for six consecutive years, with the proportion of non-interest income cumulatively increasing by 9.3 percentage points over five years. Focusing on fee income, last year we achieved fee income of 32.77 billion yuan, an increase of 5.6%, ranking second in total amount and growth among peers.”

The financial report shows that as of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank achieved non-interest income of 68.006 billion yuan, an increase of 1.039 billion yuan from the previous year, growing by 1.55%; the proportion of non-interest net income was 32.01%, up 0.67 percentage points from the previous year.

However, during the reporting period, CITIC Bank’s interest income saw a year-on-year decline. As of the end of 2025, the bank achieved interest income of 284.588 billion yuan, a decrease of 8.14% year-on-year; net interest income was 144.469 billion yuan, a decrease of 1.51% year-on-year.

Additionally, as of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank’s net interest margin was 1.63%, down 0.14 percentage points from the previous year. In this regard, Fang Heying admitted that compared to the industry, the bank’s decline was 2 to 3 basis points (BP) more.

Regarding the decline in interest margin, Fang Heying responded that, firstly, due to early control of liability costs, the reduction of structured deposits by 60 billion yuan in 2024 released the impact early, affecting the interest margin in 2025; secondly, due to control of liability costs, last year the “three years and above maturity deposits” were 40 billion yuan less than peers, affecting the corporate liability cost rate by 2 BPs; finally, 40 billion yuan of subordinated capital bonds matured last August, but they caused an additional interest expenditure of 200 million yuan as early as May, indicating that refined management was still insufficient, affecting the interest margin by 0.3 BPs.

Fang Heying also stated that due to both demand and strategy, the high-yield personal credit loan “Xin Miaodai” was significantly reduced last year, affecting the interest margin by 1.6 BPs. Meanwhile, the proportion of low-yield bills was high in the first quarter of last year; although there was a reduction at the end of the quarter, the impact had already occurred.

Retail business remains a key focus for development this year

In terms of asset quality, as of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 1.15%, down 0.01 percentage points from the end of 2024, achieving a decline for seven consecutive years.

However, the bank still experienced an increase in retail credit risk. As of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank’s personal consumption loan (excluding credit cards) non-performing rate was 2.8%, up 0.66 percentage points from the end of the previous year.

In this regard, CITIC Bank Vice President Jin Xinian stated that since 2024, facing the industry trend of retail risk, measures such as establishing a joint prevention and control mechanism for business and risk, and strengthening the full-process management of credit granting have been adopted to continuously enhance the capability of self-acquisition and self-risk control.

Striving to integrate AI into every business decision within two years

At the performance release conference, CITIC Bank’s management emphasized the latest progress and achievements in the bank’s technology transformation. During the reporting period, CITIC Bank’s investment in information technology reached 9.641 billion yuan, accounting for 4.54% of operating income. As of the end of 2025, CITIC Bank had 5,807 technology personnel, accounting for a high proportion of 8.79%.

CITIC Bank Vice President Gu Lingyun stated that the bank’s technology capabilities are accelerating their integration into core business processes, releasing tangible productivity in cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, risk control, and experience optimization.

In terms of artificial intelligence applications, Gu Lingyun said that CITIC Bank’s investment in computing hardware grew fivefold in 2025, and a unified AI platform and GPU computing cluster have been established. Currently, the monthly call volume for small models is nearly 500 million times, and the daily peak call volume for large models exceeds 3 million times, with more than 1,700 scenarios for intelligent service implementation.

Regarding the promotion of the technology transformation strategy, Gu Lingyun stated that in 2026 and during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the bank will continue to focus on technology, strengthen objectives, and strive to build an industry-leading digital bank, while concentrating on four key tasks:

First, to ensure smoother organizational operations. CITIC Bank will continue to promote the deep integration of business technology, data, and intelligence, forming more digital integration teams that respond quickly to market demands, deepening cooperation between industry, academia, and research, and tackling challenges together.

Second, to make better use of data. Solidly advancing the shaping of data elements, promoting the shift of work models from operation-dependent to data-driven, and truly making data “run” in business.

Third, to integrate artificial intelligence into every corner, fully implementing the artificial intelligence action led directly by senior management, striving to permeate AI into every business decision and activity in CITIC Bank within two years.

Fourth, to strengthen security barriers, appropriately advancing the layout of intelligent computing power, introducing new security technologies, and ensuring the safety, trustworthiness, and controllability of AI applications.

Editor: Huang Mei

Proofreader: Qiao Yi

Production: Xiao Mo

Review: Chen Siyang

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