China CITIC Bank’s revenue growth returned to positive in the first quarter; corporate banking improved, while retail banking faced pressure.

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China CITIC Bank’s revenue curve has shown signs of stabilization:

For the full year of 2025, the bank achieved operating income of 212.475 billion yuan, a slight year-on-year decrease of 0.55%. Entering the first quarter of 2026, its single-quarter revenue reached 54.649 billion yuan, a year-on-year rebound of 5.23%, breaking previous market expectations of continuous negative revenue growth.

This rebound is primarily attributable to the slowing decline in net interest margin.

For the full year of 2025, its net interest margin was 1.63%, down 14 basis points year-on-year. By the first quarter of 2026, the net interest margin stood at 1.61%, exhibiting relative stability.

Amid a declining LPR environment, China CITIC Bank hedged by reducing high-cost liabilities: in 2025, the personal deposit cost rate fell 33 basis points to 1.73%.

With a total asset scale of 10.24 trillion yuan in the first quarter, its net interest income achieved a 1.66% year-on-year increase, reflecting a business strategy of offsetting price with volume.

Growth in non-interest income is another key factor driving revenue.

In the first quarter of 2026, its net non-interest income reached 18.379 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.07%. Looking back at 2025, its wealth management service fees grew by 45.17% year-on-year, with the wealth management sector partially offsetting the slowdown in traditional credit business growth.

In addition, net cash flow from operating activities for the first quarter was 188.185 billion yuan, up 395.31% year-on-year. The financial report pointed out that this was mainly due to increased cash inflows in interbank business, reflecting the vibrancy of interbank capital circulation.

In terms of asset quality, China CITIC Bank’s credit business shows obvious structural differentiation.

Overall, the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio dropped to 1.15% by the end of 2025 and remained at that level in the first quarter of 2026.

Dissecting the details, the credit quality of the corporate banking business is improving: Previously watched real estate and local debt exposures showed declines. In 2025, its balance of implicit local government debt loans was 75.364 billion yuan, down 62.539 billion yuan from the end of the previous year, with an NPL ratio of 0.19%.

At the same time, asset quality at the retail end faces certain cyclical pressures, with macroeconomic fluctuations directly affecting household balance sheets: By the end of 2025, the personal loan NPL ratio rose by 0.07 percentage points to 1.32%. Affected by weaker income expectations, the personal consumer loan NPL ratio increased to 2.80%, up 0.66 percentage points from the previous year-end, while the credit card NPL ratio reached 2.62%.

By the first quarter of 2026, the personal mortgage loan NPL ratio further increased slightly by 0.11 percentage points to 0.52%.

From the write-off and provision data, China CITIC Bank disposed of 87.79 billion yuan in non-performing loans in 2025, maintaining strong collection and restructuring efforts.

Provision coverage ratio in the first quarter of 2026 slightly declined to 202.45%, indicating the bank is steadily consuming part of its provisions to write off non-performing assets, keeping the overall asset quality stable on the books, using improvements in corporate credit quality to balance risk exposure in retail.

In terms of capital and shareholder returns, China CITIC Bank has maintained a high level of dividends.

For 2025, the proposed total cash dividend is 10.74 billion yuan, and including interim dividends, total annual dividends reached 21.201 billion yuan, representing 31.75% of net profit attributable to the parent, a record high. By the end of the first quarter of 2026, the core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 9.33%. As its assets surpassed 10 trillion yuan, core capital indicators remained stable.

In summary, the current main business line of China CITIC Bank is stabilizing the corporate business, defending the retail business, and hedging with non-interest income.

The return to positive revenue growth in the first quarter demonstrates the positive impact of liability-side cost control on profitability elasticity. As real estate and local debt exposures gradually contract, changes in asset quality in the personal consumer loan and credit card business have become the key observation points for future risk assessment.

For investors following defensive strategies and high dividend logic, while obtaining a 31.75% dividend payout, it is necessary to continuously monitor the subsequent performance of early delinquency indicators in retail lending in the second half of the year.

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