Net Profit Grows Modestly by 3%! CITIC Bank Releases First Annual Report After Joining the "Ten Trillion" Club

Established state-owned bank CITIC Bank has taken the lead in releasing its annual report this year.

On the evening of March 20, CITIC Bank announced its 2025 annual report, with the group achieving operating revenue of 212.475 billion yuan, a slight decrease of 0.55% year-over-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 70.618 billion yuan, up 2.98%. This modest growth sets a stable tone for this year’s bank annual reports.

Additionally, this is the first annual report released after CITIC Bank’s assets surpassed 10 trillion yuan, attracting attention to future operational guidance.

Non-interest income performs relatively well

The 2025 report shows that under the drive of cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, and structural optimization, CITIC Bank’s profits have been steadily released, and its total assets have reached a new level.

In terms of revenue and profit, operating income was 212.475 billion yuan, down 0.55% year-over-year, demonstrating strong revenue resilience; operating profit was 83.674 billion yuan, up 3.39%; total profit was 84.043 billion yuan, up 3.93%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 70.618 billion yuan, up 2.98%.

Regarding income structure, CITIC Bank’s net interest income was 144.469 billion yuan, down 1.51% year-over-year, accounting for about 68% of total revenue. Due to macroeconomic factors and preferential policies for the real economy, net interest margin narrowed to 1.63% (down 0.14 percentage points YoY), putting pressure on net interest income.

Non-interest net income reached 68.006 billion yuan, up 1.55%, accounting for about 32% of total revenue. Amid narrowing interest spreads, the countercyclical growth of non-interest income has become an important support for stabilizing overall revenue.

Risk control effectiveness improves

During the reporting period, CITIC Bank maintained stable asset quality and solid risk resistance.

Key risk indicators show: non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at 1.15%, down 0.01 percentage points from the end of last year, indicating continued improvement in asset quality;

NPL balance was 67.216 billion yuan, a slight increase of 732 million yuan (+1.10%) from the end of last year; provision coverage ratio was 203.61%, down 5.82 percentage points from the end of last year but still above 200%.

The report states that in 2025, CITIC Bank will deepen the implementation of the “Five Strategies in One” (industry research, credit policies, review and approval standards, marketing guidelines, and performance assessment), adhere to controlling new risks and clearing old ones, and strengthen proactive asset quality management. The bank will accelerate digital and intelligent risk control transformation, improve “technological defense” and “intelligent control” levels, deepen the application of advanced capital measurement methods, and cultivate a business philosophy of “filtering out risks for better returns.”

Business and capital markets integration

In key business areas, CITIC Bank maintained a “three-pronged” approach of corporate, retail, and financial markets in 2025.

Corporate banking became the bank’s performance “ballast,” achieving a net operating income of 91.93 billion yuan, up 2.18% YoY, accounting for 47.35% of the bank’s net revenue. Notably, corporate loans grew significantly by 13.24% (reaching 3.29 trillion yuan), showing strong performance.

Financial markets business has become a new engine for the bank’s performance, with a net operating income of 28.059 billion yuan, up 4.95%, accounting for 14.45% of total net revenue. This reflects the bank’s effective use of tools like bond financing, foreign exchange hedging, and gold leasing—driven by both proprietary and client businesses—to balance profit growth and support the real economy, demonstrating strong operational capability.

Retail banking, comparatively, performed modestly, with revenue of 74.843 billion yuan, down 8.53% due to macroeconomic impacts, accounting for 38.55% of total revenue. The retail deposit balance reached 1.79 trillion yuan, up 7.98%, with ongoing optimization of the liability structure, representing a rare bright spot in related business segments.

Major shareholders continue to increase holdings

Additionally, during the period, CITIC Bank’s controlling shareholder and ultimate controller remained unchanged (CITIC Group as the actual controller, CITIC Financial Holdings as the controlling shareholder), but notable positive changes occurred in the top ten shareholders’ holdings and shareholding structure:

On one hand, major shareholders actively increased holdings and transferred shares. CITIC Financial Holdings reported an increase of 295 million A-shares during the period. Moreover, share transfers between CITIC Financial Holdings, Metal Link Limited, and Ruiqun Investment have been completed and registered.

On the other hand, insurance capital significantly increased its holdings. Two products under China Life Insurance substantially increased their A-share holdings, adding 890 million and 104 million shares respectively.

Furthermore, the 40 billion yuan “CITIC Convertible Bonds” issued in 2019 matured and were delisted on March 4, 2025. About 39.943 billion yuan of bonds were converted into common A-shares, totaling 6.71 billion shares, greatly enhancing core Tier 1 capital (core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio reached 9.48%).

The bank also increased capital injection into CITIC Financial Leasing and obtained approval to fully fund the establishment of a financial asset investment company (XinYin JinTou), further enriching its comprehensive financial license portfolio.

Outlook for next year

CITIC Bank also released its annual profit distribution plan, with a relatively generous year-end dividend: proposing a cash dividend of 1.93 yuan per 10 shares (tax included).

Combined with the interim cash dividend of 1.88 yuan per 10 shares, the total cash dividend for 2025 will be 3.81 yuan per 10 shares.

In the annual report, the bank also provided a 2026 outlook, expecting asset growth of around 5%. It will continue to leverage CITIC Group’s “Finance + Industry” synergy, focusing on “company leading, retail steady contribution, capital markets increasing income, risk control creating value,” striving to rank among the top global banks.

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