Net interest income of 12 listed banks increases year-over-year, supporting a rebound in performance

Reporter 熊 Yue

In recent years, due to factors such as falling loan interest rates and weak loan demand, the core component of commercial banks’ revenue structure—net interest income—has faced sustained pressure. As the effects of loan repricing continue to be gradually released and the benefits of lower funding costs become more apparent, in 2025, the net interest income of multiple listed banks grew year over year, supporting a rebound in revenue growth.

According to Wind Information, as of the time of publication on April 7, 22 A-share listed banks have disclosed their 2025 annual reports, including 6 state-owned large banks, 9 joint-stock banks, and 3 city commercial banks and 4 rural commercial banks. Among them, 12 banks saw their net interest income increase year over year, helping their performance stabilize.

Net interest income decline narrows

Data show that in 2025, the 22 listed banks above collectively achieved net interest income of 3.76 trillion yuan, down 34.1 billion yuan year over year, a decline of 0.90%, continuing the overall downtrend in listed banks’ net interest income in recent years. Despite this, the year-over-year decline in the aggregate net interest income above has narrowed significantly; in 2024, this figure was 2.53%.

Looking further, among the 22 listed banks above, 12 banks achieved year-over-year growth in net interest income, whereas in 2024, among these 22 listed banks, only 6 had net interest income growth year over year. Specifically, in 2025, China Merchants Bank’s net interest income exceeded 200 billion yuan; the net interest income of China Development Bank, and Minsheng Bank each exceeded 100 billion yuan; the bank with the highest year-over-year growth in net interest income was Chongqing Bank, reaching 22.44%; in addition, net interest income growth for China Development Bank, Qingdao Bank, Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank, and others was also above 5%.

By reviewing the annual reports of relevant listed banks, it can be seen that with the trend of declining asset yields showing no obvious change, listed banks have generally intensified efforts to cut funding costs, creating room for a rebound in net interest income, and further driving an improvement in revenue.

For example, China Merchants Bank’s 2025 annual report shows that in 2025, the bank achieved operating revenue of 37.6k yuan, up 0.01% year over year. Among this, non-interest net income fell 3.38% year over year to 337.53B yuan, while net interest income grew 2.04% year over year to 121.94B yuan, pulling the revenue growth rate back into positive territory. In 2024, the bank’s operating revenue fell 0.48% year over year.

“This indicates that banks’ profitability is being restored, sending positive signals that operating pressure on the banking industry is marginally easing,” said Lou Feipeng, a researcher at China Postal Savings Bank, to reporters of The Securities Daily. This is mainly because: first, the macroeconomy stabilizing and recovering has boosted credit demand, and banks’ asset scale has expanded steadily; second, progress has been made in optimizing funding costs, and the positive effects of lower deposit rates are gradually becoming visible; third, banks have actively adjusted their asset mix, increasing allocation to higher-yield assets.

Net interest margin expected to stabilize and turn favorable

Recently, management members of multiple state-owned large banks and joint-stock banks, during their 2025 results briefings, said that although net interest margin at the banks where they work still faces downward pressure this year, the magnitude of the decline has narrowed, and net interest margin is expected to show a stabilizing trend.

“We expect that the yield on loans in 2026 will continue to follow the downtrend, but the rate of decline will be significantly smaller.” Yao Mingde, deputy governor of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said at the bank’s 2025 annual results press conference. “The repricing effects caused by the LPR (loan prime rate) adjustment in May 2025 have largely already been reflected. However, given that there may still be an LPR cut this year, the loan yield may continue to decline in the future, but the decline will narrow.”

Yao Mingde said that if factors such as not considering further significant adjustments to LPR and deposit reference rates are excluded, it is expected that this year’s net interest income at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China will turn positive year over year, reaching an inflection point, and the magnitude of net interest margin decline will also further converge compared with 2025.

“Looking ahead to 2026, we expect the year-over-year decline in Bank of China’s net interest margin to narrow significantly, and net interest income will achieve positive growth.” Liu Chenggang, deputy governor of Bank of China, said at the bank’s 2025 annual results press conference.

At the 2025 results briefing of Bank of Communications, Zhou Wanfu, deputy governor, said that this year, the amount of time deposits maturing is showing a clear increase compared with 2025, with a larger share concentrated in the first quarter of this year. Looking across the full year, the net interest margin can maintain a stabilizing and improving trend.

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

Key words: