CITIC BANK, standing at 10 trillion, is still in the transformation "critical period"

Following SPD Bank, another joint-stock bank has submitted its "report card" for 2025.

At the milestone moment when total assets successfully surpassed the 10 trillion yuan mark, CITIC Bank achieved total operating revenue of 212.475 billion yuan in 2025, a slight decrease of 0.55% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 70.618 billion yuan, an increase of 2.98% year-on-year.

Behind the seemingly stable report card, the "scissors gap" between revenue and profit is widening.

In recent years, the phenomenon of "profit growth without revenue growth" has become common in the banking industry, indicating that the profit growth of some banks does not entirely stem from the expansion of business scale, but rather relies more on cost reductions or adjustments in the pace of provisioning.

From the data, total assets grew by 6.28%, yet revenue experienced negative growth, pointing directly to the "volume-for-price" dilemma currently faced by commercial banks—

As asset scale expands, the growth of interest income is offset by declining interest margins, and the traditional scale-driven model is facing the challenge of diminishing marginal returns.

In terms of asset quality, CITIC Bank has maintained its composure:

The non-performing loan ratio is 1.15%, down 1 basis point from the beginning of the year, demonstrating the bank's resilience in risk control;

However, this improvement has come at a corresponding cost, as the provision coverage ratio decreased from 209.43% to 203.61%, a decline of 5.82 percentage points, indicating that while the bank is increasing efforts to dispose of non-performing assets, the redundancy of provisioning has narrowed.

In the "New Three-Year Plan" proposed for 2024, CITIC Bank continues to prioritize the importance of retail and has established a "five leading" banking strategy, focusing on wealth management, comprehensive financing, transaction settlement, foreign exchange services, and digitalization, aiming to create a differentiated financial service model.

CITIC Bank Chairman Fang Heying stated at the beginning of 2025 that all efforts are aimed at "exploring the path from a primary growth curve to a secondary growth curve in the efficiency revolution of 'large and light' and the momentum shaping of 'large and strong'."

In the new strategy, CITIC Bank views the system as key to advancing retail enhancement:

For example, the wealth management, comprehensive financing, transaction settlement, foreign exchange services, and digitalization emphasized in the "five leading" strategy are not five isolated business directions, but rather a closely related and mutually reinforcing organic whole.

From the current results, CITIC Bank's revenue and net profit growth rates have not shown any "reversal," indicating that its transformation towards "large and light" may still be in a critical phase.

Overall, this is a typical transitional financial report.

The increase in asset scale proves the enhancement of its systemic importance, but the weakness in revenue and the decline in ROE also indicate that the path to high-quality development is not smooth;

As more data such as net interest margin and non-interest income ratio are disclosed in future annual reports, the quality of CITIC BANK's transformation will be further validated