ICBC President Liu Jun: We must find our own path in new quality productive forces and other fields.

Every reporter | Zhang Shoulin Every editor | Chen Junjie

On the evening of March 27, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China disclosed its operating performance for 2025. Operating income exceeded 800 billion yuan, with non-interest income growing by 11.8%, and net profit exceeding 370 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.0%.

ICBC President Liu Jun stated at the performance conference that if ICBC’s balance sheet continues to be primarily loan-based, it may fall short of the goal of becoming a world-class financial institution. This requires a comprehensive effort to build a modern financial services industry based on a balance sheet primarily focused on indirect financing. In the fields of new productivity and new infrastructure, ICBC must carve its own path.

Other non-interest income grew by 22.6%

“We have not relaxed our pursuit of efficiency and quality due to ICBC’s large size.” Reflecting on 2025, President Liu Jun noted that the bank has still shown a positive trend.

Liu Jun summarized that in 2025, operational efficiency improved steadily, and profit resilience further strengthened.

ICBC achieved an operating income of 801.4 billion yuan for the full year of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 1.9%. “Achieving such positive growth in an environment of gradually narrowing interest margins is quite challenging,” Liu Jun analyzed the income structure, pointing out that net interest income continues to play a fundamental role in revenue, which is highly consistent with China’s social financing structure that primarily relies on indirect financing.

In 2025, ICBC’s net interest margin was 1.28%, a decrease of 14 basis points from the beginning of the year. “However, it is important to note that the decline is narrowing quarter by quarter, showing signs of stabilization,” he said.

Net commission and fee income was 111.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.6%, reversing the previous negative growth trend. Other non-interest income was 91.973 billion yuan, an increase of 16.972 billion yuan, growing by 22.6%, providing strong support for revenue growth.

Overall, Liu Jun stated that the stability, balance, and sustainability of ICBC’s profit growth have further improved.

By the end of 2025, ICBC’s total assets at the group level reached 53.48 trillion yuan, making it the first bank in the world to exceed total assets of 50 trillion yuan. Domestic RMB loans increased by 2.17 trillion yuan from the beginning of the year to 29.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 8%. RMB bond investments increased by 2.67 trillion yuan, setting a new record.

Beyond the totals, Liu Jun mentioned that ICBC places greater emphasis on optimizing the structure and rhythm of its lending. The loan balance reached 67% in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percentage points. Key areas such as manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, green initiatives, and inclusive finance maintained rapid growth, and the major bank’s role as a pillar of support for the real economy was significantly enhanced.

In terms of asset quality, by the end of 2025, ICBC’s non-performing loan ratio at the group level was 1.31%, down 3 basis points from the beginning of the year, marking five consecutive years of decline. The year-end loan provision balance was 852.3 billion yuan, an increase of 36.8 billion yuan, growing by 4.5%, further enhancing risk compensation capacity.

Liu Jun stated that ICBC is preparing to better mitigate the impacts of macroeconomic cycles by increasing provisions. At the same time, it is advancing the construction of an enterprise-level intelligent risk control platform.

Target positioning to build a world-class financial institution

Looking ahead to the key work for 2026, Liu Jun mentioned that the first goal is to promote the construction of a world-class financial institution. It is essential to make a comprehensive effort to build a modern financial services industry based on a balance sheet primarily focused on indirect financing. The goal is to transform from a capital intermediary into a comprehensive service provider of capital, information, efficiency, and other value elements.

“Therefore, our first goal is to actively expand comprehensive services,” Liu Jun said. This requires non-commercial banking businesses to play a crucial supporting role while simultaneously building a modern financial services sector that integrates full lifecycle services with full industry chain services, creating a three-dimensional, systematic, and intelligent financial service matrix. Focusing on key areas such as modern industrial system construction, technological innovation, green transformation, and coordinated regional development, the bank will strengthen the collaborative interaction of commercial banking, investment banking, asset management, custody, wealth management, trading, and settlement, providing comprehensive solutions for clients and transforming its strong supply capacity into value creation capacity.

Liu Jun analyzed that the capital market may assign a higher valuation to modern financial services, which also requires ICBC to take the lead among Chinese financial institutions in forging a new path—organically combining a balance sheet primarily focused on indirect financing with modern financial services to achieve the goal of constructing a world-class financial institution.

The second goal is to enhance global integrated operations. Leveraging its global network advantages and the foundation of integrated operations in domestic and foreign currencies, ICBC will promote the upgrading of its global resource allocation capabilities and cross-border financial service capabilities. While connecting to broader markets and serving a larger ecosystem, it will deepen the internal motivation for high-quality financial development, particularly by upgrading products and services around RMB internationalization, improving the comprehensive service system that includes RMB pricing, trading, settlement, clearing, investment, financing, repurchase, and asset management. The aim is to achieve breakthroughs in key areas such as cross-border finance and offshore finance, extending ICBC’s RMB trading pricing advantages from domestic to overseas and enhancing the international pricing influence of the RMB.

The third goal is to continually enhance digital and intelligent momentum. Liu Jun stated that ICBC has strong technical capabilities, having established a series of centralized systems that are continuously iterated and upgraded to ensure comprehensive support for business across all dimensions and diversities.

Cover image source: Li Yuwen