CITIC Bank, China Merchants Bank, and Industrial Bank, with average salaries exceeding 550k yuan per person.

2026.04.06

Word count: 2,880; reading time: about 4 minutes

Preview: CITIC Bank leads with annual average compensation per employee of 599,200 yuan, followed by China Merchants Bank with 564,900 yuan, and Industrial Bank with 564,200 yuan.

Author | First Financial (First Finance) Mobile

As the annual reports of listed banks for 2025 are gradually released, bank compensation has once again become a focus of market attention. Joint-stock commercial banks, as the segment with the highest level of market-based operation in the banking industry, have compensation levels that not only reflect changing business conditions, but also mirror the development strategies and competitive strength of different institutions.

According to First Financial, based on Wind data, among joint-stock banks, CITIC Bank (601998.SH, 00998.HK) ranks first with average compensation per employee of 599.2 thousand yuan. China Merchants Bank (600036.SH, 003968.HK) follows with 564.9 thousand yuan, while Industrial Bank (601166.SH) ranks third with 564.2 thousand yuan, almost on par with China Merchants Bank.

In 2025, the nine joint-stock banks’ average compensation per employee was 494.4 thousand yuan, a slight overall decrease of about 2.53% compared with 2024. This also indicates that, against the broader backdrop of a narrowing net interest margin in the banking industry and a slowdown in profit growth, compensation growth has entered a phase of stability and even localized contraction.

Compensation total “bowl” down by 3.984 billion yuan

If we treat a bank like a big family, then “total compensation” is the “total spending” the family makes in a year on all its members. The data show that in 2025, the nine listed joint-stock banks’ total compensation displayed a clearly differentiated pattern.

Of the nine banks, only three saw their “money bag” grow slightly compared with 2024, with total compensation achieving positive growth. Among them, Industrial Bank’s total compensation expenses grew by 2.26%, adding net 0.861 billion yuan. This was the largest total compensation increase among joint-stock banks. Next was CITIC Bank, with total compensation growth of 1.87% and net increase of 0.744 billion yuan; China Merchants Bank’s total compensation grew by 0.89%, with a net increase of around 0.6 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, the other six banks all saw their total compensation totals decline to different degrees. In particular, Everbright Bank: its total compensation fell by more than 19%, reaching as much as 4.3 billion yuan. Notably, in 2025, Everbright Bank’s operating income and net profit both fell by more than 6% year over year, making it one of the few listed banks in A-shares with “double declines” in performance.

Overall, the nine listed joint-stock banks recorded total compensation of 271.985 billion yuan in 2025, down 3.984 billion yuan from 2024, a decline of 1.44%.

In a bank’s financial statements, employee compensation is an important component of costs. “Against the backdrop of ongoing narrowing net interest margins in the banking industry and bottlenecks in the traditional path of expanding scale, ‘seeking profits from costs’ has become one of the key strategies for banks to maintain growth in profitability. Its importance is shifting from a nice-to-have to a necessity.” Dong Shimiao, Chief Economist of Zhaolian and Deputy Director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, told First Financial.

Of course, when analyzing the “money bag,” you cannot look only at how much was spent, but also at how many “people” there are at home.

According to annual reports, the nine joint-stock banks collectively had 534,000 employees in 2025, a slight increase of about 3,000 from 5.31 million in 2024, indicating that joint-stock banks as a whole did not experience large-scale expansion or contraction, and the overall “bowl” remained basically stable.

The nine banks’ staffing levels formed three tiers. The first tier is China Merchants Bank. The annual report shows that China Merchants Bank’s total number of employees last year exceeded 120,000, reaching 121,600. China Merchants Bank is far ahead among joint-stock banks in employee headcount, with a level nearly equal to the combined number of employees at Minsheng Bank and Pudong Development Bank.

The second tier includes CITIC Bank, Industrial Bank, Minsheng Bank, and Pudong Development Bank, with employee numbers around 60,000 each; the third tier is Everbright Bank, Ping An Bank, Huaxia Bank, and Zheshang Bank, and employee numbers are around 40,000 to 20,000. Among them, Zheshang Bank has the fewest employees, at around 25,000.

Looking at each bank specifically, among the nine joint-stock banks, five added staff while three reduced staff. The most aggressive hiring was China Merchants Bank and CITIC Bank, with both seeing personnel growth of over 3%, adding net 4,384 employees and 2,208 employees, respectively. The largest staff reduction occurred at Huaxia Bank and Minsheng Bank: total employee numbers decreased by 5.61% and 2.89%, resulting in net decreases of 2,185 employees and 1,832 employees, respectively. For the other joint-stock banks, personnel changes were generally around a few hundred.

From the perspective of average revenue per employee, Ping An Bank ranks first at 3,152,200 yuan, followed by CITIC Bank and Industrial Bank. From the perspective of average profit per employee, China Merchants Bank ranks first at 1,235,200 yuan, followed by Industrial Bank and CITIC Bank.

By combining total compensation and employee headcount, it can be seen that four banks have both their total compensation and employee numbers in a shrinking trend: Minsheng Bank, Pudong Development Bank, Huaxia Bank, and Zheshang Bank. For two banks, total compensation declines but employee numbers rise slightly: Everbright Bank and Ping An Bank.

As the leaders among joint-stock banks—China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, and CITIC Bank—all three have both their total compensation and employee headcount expanding, which leads to differentiated performance in average compensation across banks.

The difference in average annual compensation between the first and last banks is 223,300 yuan

In terms of the absolute value of average annual compensation per employee, the nine joint-stock banks can clearly be divided into three tiers, with a substantial gap between leading banks and laggards.

The first tier consists of CITIC Bank, China Merchants Bank, and Industrial Bank. Each has average compensation per employee exceeding 5.5 million yuan, making them the “high-compensation hubs” among joint-stock banks. Among them, CITIC Bank ranks first with 599.2 thousand yuan average compensation per employee. Although it is slightly lower than in 2024, it still maintains an absolute leading advantage, with total average monthly pay of 499,000 yuan per employee.

China Merchants Bank ranks next with 564.9 thousand yuan average compensation per employee. As the “retail king,” China Merchants Bank’s compensation level has always been among the top in the industry. Industrial Bank ranks third with 564.2 thousand yuan, with a gap of less than 10 thousand yuan versus China Merchants Bank. Its business model of “commercial banking + investment banking” delivers steady earnings that support the steady increase in compensation levels. Together, the two banks’ average monthly pay is around 470,000 yuan.

If measured from operating income and net profit, it is evident that CITIC Bank is “more generous” to employees. Wind data show that China Merchants Bank’s operating income and net profit attributable to shareholders are 1.59 times and 1.94 times those of CITIC Bank, respectively. Industrial Bank’s operating income is in line with CITIC Bank’s, but its net profit attributable to shareholders is 6.8 billion yuan higher than CITIC Bank’s.

The second tier includes Zheshang Bank and Minsheng Bank, with average compensation per employee in the range of 5.0 million to 5.3 million yuan, which is roughly a medium level in the industry. Among them, Zheshang Bank’s average compensation per employee is 521.6 thousand yuan, with average monthly pay of 435,000 yuan per employee; Minsheng Bank is 506.5 thousand yuan, with average monthly pay of 422,000 yuan per employee.

The third tier is made up of Ping An Bank, Huaxia Bank, Pudong Development Bank, and Everbright Bank. Their average annual compensation per employee is all below 4.6 million yuan: 457.6 thousand yuan, 441.3 thousand yuan, 418.6 thousand yuan, and 375.9 thousand yuan, respectively, for average monthly pay of 381,000 yuan, 368,000 yuan, 349,000 yuan, and 313,000 yuan per employee.

Among them, Everbright Bank is the lowest by average compensation per employee among the nine banks, and its average annual compensation differs from CITIC Bank’s—ranked first—by 22.33 million yuan (actually 22.33 thousand yuan based on stated figures). The gap between the first and last is significant.

Overall, the nine joint-stock banks’ 2025 average compensation per employee arithmetic mean is about 494.4 thousand yuan. Compared with the 2024 average of 507.3 thousand yuan, it declined slightly by about 2.53%. This also indicates that, against the backdrop of a narrowing net interest margin in the banking industry and slowing profit growth, compensation growth has entered a phase of stability and even localized contraction.

In terms of year-over-year change, Huaxia Bank performs most prominently, with the largest year-over-year increase of 4.60%, ranking first. Its average annual compensation per employee increased by 19.4 thousand yuan, rising from 421.9 thousand yuan in 2024 to 441.3 thousand yuan in 2025. Minsheng Bank follows, with a year-over-year increase of 2.36% and an average compensation per employee increase of 11.7 thousand yuan. Industrial Bank’s year-over-year increase is 1.90%, and average compensation per employee increased by 10.5 thousand yuan—its compensation growth is basically synchronized with its performance.

The remaining six joint-stock banks all saw their compensation decline year over year. Among them, Everbright Bank has the largest drop: down 19.96% year over year, with average compensation per employee decreasing by 93.7 thousand yuan. This is closely related to the operational pressure from Everbright Bank’s double decline in revenue and net profit in 2025; the move to cut pay has become an important measure for “reducing costs and increasing efficiency.”

Zheshang Bank’s drop is next, down 4.22% year over year, with average compensation per employee decreasing by 23.0 thousand yuan. China Merchants Bank, Ping An Bank, Pudong Development Bank, and CITIC Bank saw relatively milder declines, down 2.75%, 1.88%, 1.59%, and 1.45%, respectively, with the total reduction in average compensation per employee ranging from 0.67 thousand yuan to 1.6 thousand yuan.

Massive information and precise insights—available in the Sina Finance app