China CITIC Bank 2025 Annual Report: Group stable, parent bank weak, retail declines

Questioning AI · Why does CITIC Bank Group maintain steady growth, while the parent bank alone faces pressure?

Text | Xiao Fang

Source | Fortune Unicorn

In the context of narrowing net interest margins, evaluating a bank’s operational status not only involves looking at whether total assets are growing but also at which segments support income and profits. For CITIC Bank, after crossing the 10 trillion yuan scale, changes in profit sources are worth noting.

CITIC Bank’s 2025 annual report shows that total assets and net profit attributable to the bank’s shareholders in the group remain growing, but both operating income and net profit in the parent bank’s report are lower than the previous year. Meanwhile, pre-tax profits from corporate banking and financial markets segments have increased, while retail banking pre-tax profits have decreased, indicating a shift in profit distribution compared to last year.

01

Why did the group’s scale surpass 10 trillion yuan, yet the parent bank’s report show lower figures than last year?

From the group’s perspective, CITIC Bank’s total assets and net profit attributable to shareholders in 2025 still grew. Total assets reached 10.13 trillion yuan, up 6.28% from the end of the previous year; operating income was 100k yuan, down 0.55%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 100k yuan, up 2.98%; non-performing loan ratio was 1.15%, down 0.01 percentage points; the weighted average return on equity was 9.39%, lower than last year’s 9.79%; net interest margin decreased from 1.77% to 1.63%. Overall, the group’s figures remain steady.

Image source: CITIC Bank Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Report

However, comparing the consolidated financial statements with the parent bank’s report reveals another layer of change. In 2025, the bank’s operating income was 101.3k yuan, below last year’s 212.48B yuan; net profit was 70.62B yuan, also lower than last year’s 194.16B yuan. The group’s net profit continues to grow, but both operating income and net profit in the parent bank’s report are lower than the previous year. The changes between the group’s consolidated report and the parent’s are not synchronized.

Image source: CITIC Bank Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Report

Further analysis shows that, from the parent bank’s report, net interest income, investment income, and gains from fair value changes are all lower than last year, while business and management fees and credit impairment losses have decreased compared to the previous year. In 2025, the bank’s net interest income was 200.32B yuan, below last year’s 64.7B yuan; investment income was 66.37B yuan, down from 135.93B yuan; gains from fair value changes were 138.1B yuan, less than 27.01B yuan. Conversely, business and management fees fell from 29.57B yuan to 1.94B yuan, and credit impairment losses decreased from 5.16B yuan to 64.31B yuan. This means that, from the parent bank’s report, while business and management fees and credit impairment losses declined, net interest income, investment income, and fair value gains all fell short of last year, resulting in the parent’s net profit being lower than the previous year.

This shift can also be confirmed by the changes in interest margins and yields shown in the annual report. CITIC Bank’s 2025 report indicates that group net interest income was 61.17B yuan, a decrease of 2.210 billion yuan or 1.51% from last year; the average yield on loans and advances dropped from 4.24% to 3.67%; the average yield on financial investments fell from 2.88% to 2.56%; the average yield on interest-earning assets decreased from 3.73% to 3.21%; while the cost of interest-bearing liabilities decreased from 2.02% to 1.61%. Based on the annual report data, the decline in yields on total interest-earning assets was greater than the reduction in the cost of interest-bearing liabilities.

Image source: CITIC Bank Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Report

Thus, from the parent bank’s perspective, the composition of income has changed compared to last year. The group’s consolidated report remains stable, but the parent bank’s operating income and net profit are lower than last year. The operational performance shown in the group and parent reports is not entirely aligned.

This is also reflected in the relationship between the group and the parent bank. CITIC Bank’s 2025 report shows that, as of the end of the reporting period, the bank has 8 subsidiaries domestically and abroad. The stability at the group level is not solely due to the parent bank’s efforts but also involves contributions from subsidiaries. The data indicates that the growth at the group level and the performance of subsidiaries support each other, and the performance of subsidiaries also influences the overall group results.

02

Retail asset scale remains roughly flat, but why did profit share drop from 11.4% to 6.3%?

The change in retail banking profit contribution is a notable aspect of CITIC Bank’s 2025 report. Segment data shows that in 2025, corporate banking operating income was 57.6B yuan, up from last year, with pre-tax profits of 55.26B yuan, also higher; financial markets segment had operating income of 144.47B yuan and pre-tax profits of 2.21B yuan, both above last year. Retail banking, however, had operating income of 98.83B yuan, down from 54.32B yuan, and pre-tax profits of 33.69B yuan, significantly lower than last year’s 26.94B yuan.

Image source: CITIC Bank Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Report

Looking further, the retail banking segment’s assets are close to year-end levels, but its profit share has decreased. As of the end of 2025, retail banking assets were 79.37B yuan, nearly unchanged from 85.68B yuan at year-end last year. However, pre-tax profits in this segment fell to 5.3B yuan, accounting for only 6.3% of total profits, down from 11.4%. Despite the large asset scale, the profit contribution from retail banking has declined markedly compared to last year.

Image source: CITIC Bank Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Report

From the data in CITIC Bank’s 2025 report, while the profit share of retail banking segments has decreased, the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio for personal loans has risen compared to year-end last year, whereas the NPL ratio for corporate loans has decreased. At the end of 2025, the group’s personal loan balance was 9.23B yuan, up 0.20% from last year’s end; the personal NPL ratio increased by 0.07 percentage points. Conversely, corporate loan balances grew by 13.24%, and the corporate NPL ratio decreased by 0.18 percentage points.

Image source: CITIC Bank Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Report

Further, the overall NPL ratio declined slightly from 1.16% to 1.15%, corporate NPL ratio decreased from 1.27% to 1.09%, while personal NPL ratio increased from 1.25% to 1.32%. With retail banking assets remaining roughly stable, pre-tax profits in this segment fell from 9.230 billion yuan to 5.3B yuan, and the segment’s pre-tax profit accounted for a smaller proportion of total profits than last year.

According to CITIC Bank’s 2025 report, as of the end of 2025, the personal housing loan balance was 9.23B yuan, up 5.3B yuan from last year’s end, with an NPL ratio of 0.41%, down 0.08 percentage points. Meanwhile, the overall personal loan NPL ratio increased slightly, and different types of retail loans showed mixed performance.

Because retail remains a significant part of CITIC Bank’s overall operations, more attention should be paid to why profits have not increased proportionally despite stable business scale. For large joint-stock banks, this is usually not due to a single business line but results from the combined effects of retail lending, wealth management, and customer operations. The ability to absorb fluctuations across different businesses directly impacts the contribution of retail to overall bank performance.

Therefore, retail is not only a large business segment for CITIC Bank but also crucial for achieving a more balanced profit distribution. Instead of focusing solely on how much retail business can expand, it’s more important to consider whether revenue generation, cost control, and risk management can be better coordinated.

03

Non-interest income share is rising, but why can’t it offset the decline in interest margins?

CITIC Bank’s 2025 annual report shows that, despite net interest income, investment income, and fair value gains being lower than last year, fee and commission income increased, and income from overseas platforms and net profits also grew. In 2025, the bank’s fee and commission income was 55.09B yuan, higher than last year’s 27.36B yuan. Among these, bank card fees decreased from 26.32B to 15.49B; agency business fees increased from 13.91B to 3.66B; wealth management fees rose from 1.080 billion to 2.591 billion; and guarantee, consulting, custody, and settlement fees all saw growth.

Image source: CITIC Bank Co., Ltd. 2025 Annual Report

Looking at fee categories, bank card fees declined compared to last year, but agency, wealth management, custody, and settlement fees increased, indicating an internal shift in the bank’s non-interest income structure.

The change in the proportion of non-interest income at the group level also supports this. In 2025, interest income accounted for 68.0% of total operating income, down 0.7 percentage points from last year; non-interest income accounted for 32.0%, up 0.7 percentage points. The share of non-interest income increased.

However, in absolute terms, although the bank’s fee and commission income grew, net interest income still significantly exceeds fee income, and investment income and fair value gains decreased compared to last year. Based on the disclosed data for 2025, the growth in non-interest income has supplemented the bank’s revenue, but net interest income remains a key component.

From the annual report, CITIC Guoan’s total assets, operating income, and net profit all increased compared to last year. Wealth management and private banking income from CITIC Bank (International) also grew year-over-year. Correspondingly, the parent bank’s net interest income remains much higher than fee income, indicating that, besides interest income, offshore platform and intermediary business income also contribute to group performance.

The stability of CITIC Bank’s group results is a combined effort of the parent bank, overseas platforms, wealth management, transaction settlement, and subsidiaries. The rise in diversified income sources helps reduce reliance on a single profit stream. From the 2025 annual report, these supplementary sources have not yet fully replaced traditional income from the parent bank.

Looking at CITIC Bank’s 2025 report, fee income from agency, wealth management, custody, and settlement services all exceeded last year, and income from overseas platforms and private banking also grew. This shows that the bank’s annual revenue is not solely supported by net interest income; intermediary income and overseas platform results have also contributed to group revenue and profits.

For CITIC Bank, crossing 10 trillion yuan is not the end but a new starting point for diversified profit sources. The parent remains core, but group profitability is now supported by corporate banking, financial markets, non-interest businesses, and overseas platforms. The key moving forward is whether each segment can continue to improve and mutually reinforce, ultimately making the operating foundation above 10 trillion more balanced. We look forward to seeing how this develops.

Author’s note: Personal opinions, for reference only.