Standing at 10 trillion yuan, China CITIC Bank is still in a critical phase of transformation.

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Following Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, another joint-stock bank has submitted its “report card” for 2025.

At the milestone moment when total assets successfully surpassed the RMB 10 trillion threshold, China CITIC Bank achieved total operating income of RMB 212.475 billion in 2025, a slight decrease of 0.55% year-on-year, while net profit attributable to the parent company was RMB 70.618 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.98%.

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, meaning some banks’ profit growth does not stem entirely from business expansion but increasingly relies on cost reduction or adjustment of provision schedules.

From the data, total assets grew by 6.28%, but revenue showed negative growth, directly pointing to the current dilemma faced by commercial banks—“trading volume for price.”

As asset size expands, the increase in interest income is offset by declining interest spreads, challenging the marginal effects of the traditional scale-driven model.

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

Non-performing loan rate is 1.15%, a decline of 1 basis point from the beginning of the year, demonstrating the bank’s resilience on the risk control side;

However, this improvement also came with costs—the provision coverage ratio fell from 209.43% to 203.61%, down 5.82 percentage points, indicating the redundancy of provisions has narrowed slightly as efforts to dispose of non-performing assets increased.

In its “New Three-Year Plan” proposed in 2024, China CITIC Bank still places primary focus on retail banking, and established the “Five Leading Areas” strategy, focusing on wealth management, integrated financing, transaction settlement, forex services, and digitalization, aiming to build a differentiated financial service model.

China CITIC Bank Chairman Fang Heying stated at the beginning of 2025 that all the company’s efforts are intended “to explore a path from one growth curve to a second growth curve, through the efficiency revolution of ‘large and light’ and the momentum building of ‘large and strong.’”

In the new strategy, China CITIC Bank regards its system as the key to advancing retail enhancement:

For example, the five areas highlighted in the “Five Leading Areas” strategy—wealth management, integrated financing, transaction settlement, forex services and digitalization—are not isolated business directions, but an integrated and mutually reinforcing whole.

Judging from current results, China CITIC Bank’s growth rate in revenue and net profit has not shown a “reversal”, indicating that its transformation toward becoming “large and light” may still be in a critical phase.

Overall, this is a typical transitional financial report.

The rise in asset scale proves its enhanced systematic importance, but weak revenue and a declining ROE also indicate that the road to high-quality development will not be smooth;

With the disclosure of future annual reports covering more data such as net interest margin and the proportion of non-interest income, the degree of China CITIC Bank’s transformation will be further tested.

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