Chinese Banking Sector 2025 Review and 2026 Outlook

In 2025, the banking sector achieved steady and pragmatic development results. By the end of 2025, the total assets in both local and foreign currencies of banking financial institutions rose to RMB480 trillion, a year‑on‑year increase of 8.0%; the total assets of large commercial banks reached RMB210.8 trillion, with a year‑on‑year growth rate of over 10%, fully playing a leading and driving role in the industry. Credit extension showed a favorable trend of “rising volume with declining prices”, with outstanding RMB loans nearing RMB272 trillion, up by 6.4% year‑on‑year; the weighted average interest rate on newly extended corporate loans stood at approximately 3.1%, at a historically low level, effectively reducing financing costs for the real economy. Even more noteworthy was the optimization of the credit structure. The year‑on‑year growth rates of outstanding loans in both local and foreign currencies extended by banking financial institutions to high‑tech enterprises and tech‑oriented medium and small enterprises reached 7.5% and 19.8%, respectively, while the share of credit loans rose significantly, indicating that financial support for technological innovation continued to intensify. Meanwhile, the growth rates of outstanding inclusive loans to micro and small enterprises and inclusive agricultural loans exceeded 11% and 10%, respectively, far outpacing the average growth rate of total loans, demonstrating that financial supply to weak links has continued to expand. The technological, green, and inclusive attributes of banks’ credit assets have steadily strengthened, providing solid and robust financial support for fostering new quality productive forces, building a modern industrial system, and facilitating economic transformation and upgrading.

This report covers five major chapters: 2025 economic and financial sector review, annual performance analysis of listed banks in 2025, observation of listed banks’ business in 2025, hot topics, and 2026 macroeconomic and banking outlook. Taking 12 representative domestic commercial banks as samples, the report systematically analyzes their profitability, asset quality, liabilities, and capital strength, comprehensively reviews changes in business development, operating models, and the regulatory environment, and objectively presents the development achievements of China’s banking sector in 2025. At the same time, it selects 6 foreign global systemically important banks for comparative analysis, drawing on the best practices of international peers to help Chinese banks clarify their positioning and learn from others’ strengths to compensate for their weaknesses. The business observations and hot topics focus on core areas such as improving the quality and efficiency of inclusive finance, resolving real estate credit risks, digital and intelligent transformation of retail business, high-quality development of bank wealth management, and AI-empowered financial innovation, providing in-depth analysis of industry transformation paths and development trends. We firmly believe that this report will provide professional insights and practical references for domestic banks to fulfill their strategic missions, serve the real economy and people’s livelihood needs, and achieve high-quality development of their own, helping Chinese banks overcome difficulties and make steady and long-term progress on the journey toward building a financial powerhouse.

Contents

1. 2025 Economic and Financial Sector Review

2. Annual Performance Analysis of Listed Banks in 2025

2.1 Profitability

2.2 Assets

2.3 Liabilities

2.4 Capital position

3. Observation of Listed Banks’ Business in 2025

3.1 Harnessing the “Five Major Financial Initiatives” to activate new digital drivers: Ushering in a new phase of high-quality inclusive finance development through quality-and-efficiency leapfrogging and ecosystem restructuring

3.2 Amid macroeconomic slowdown and margin compression, retail banking pivots to refined digital-and-intelligent operations

3.3 Compliance as Foundation, Investment Research as Core, and Value as Engine: Bank Wealth Management Ushers in a New Journey of High‑Quality Development

3.4 Reducing inventory, mitigating risks, and pursuing transformation: Commercial banks adopt targeted measures to safeguard real estate sector stabilization and transition

3.5 AI reshapes bank competitiveness as Fintech advances into the intelligent critical phase

4. Hot topics

4.1 Embarking on the new journey of the “15th Five-Year” Plan: Strategic choices for China’s banking industry in the AI Era

4.2 Striving for long-term vision, enhancing quality and efficiency, and benefiting local communities: Challenges and transformation pathways for local city commercial banks during the “15th Five-Year” Plan period, transitioning from scale expansion to value deepening

4.3 Leveraging technological empowerment, and steering the future with intelligence: Insights into digital-intelligence transformation trends of risk compliance and internal control in the financial sector

4.4 Special campaign on financial data security under the “Four Batches” accountability framework: Policy interpretation and response strategies

4.5 Preventing risks and forging breakthrough strategies for retail credit: Practice and implementation of the barbell strategy

4.6 Standing at the New Starting Point of the “15th Five-Year” Plan: Challenges and Responses of VAT Legislation to Bank Tax Management

4.7 Upgrading national standard: In-depth data value exploration through DCMM transition in commercial banks

4.8 Navigating trends with foresight: Analysis of key points of the global internal audit standards and study on adaptive strategies for internal audit in financial institutions

4.9 Transitioning from scale expansion to value elevation: Pathways for high-quality development of cross-border financial business in Chinese funded banks

4.10 Analysis of key points of the Measures for the Administration of Information Disclosure of Asset Management Products of Banking and Insurance Institutions

4.11 In-depth analysis and practical implementation of the new Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Custody Business of Commercial Banks (for Trial Implementation)

5. 2026 Macroeconomic and Banking Outlook