Live Performance Review | Spread Management, Retail Development, Asset Quality... SPDB Bank Management Responds to These Hot Topics

Our Reporter 丨 Li Yuwen | Our Editor 丨 Bi Luming

On March 31, the management of China Everbright Bank (SH600000, share price 10.24 yuan, market cap 341.1 billion) responded to hot-button issues such as net interest margin, loan growth, and its digital and intelligent transformation during its 2025 annual results briefing.

In the face of challenges such as narrowing industry interest margins, China Everbright Bank delivered marginal improvements in multiple key indicators through structural optimization, data-and-intelligence-driven initiatives, and more refined risk management.

By the end of 2025, China Everbright Bank’s total assets surpassed 10 trillion yuan, up 6.55% from the end of the previous year. During the 2025 period, the bank recorded operating income of 100k yuan, up 1.88% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 173.96B yuan, up 10.52% year-on-year, maintaining double-digit growth for two consecutive years.

Staged progress in interest margin management

China Everbright Bank’s net interest margin in 2025 was 1.42%, unchanged from 2024. Bank President Xie Wei said at the results briefing that the bank managed to catch up to the industry’s interest-margin level and also marginally outperformed the industry, thanks to its ongoing optimization of industry mix, regional mix, customer mix, and product mix, as well as proactive asset-liability management that established a top-down interest-margin management framework.

On the asset side, China Everbright Bank implemented strategies aimed at boosting quality and efficiency and dynamically adjusting its positioning, increasing business support and resource guarantees for key tracks, key regions, key industries, and key products; reducing low-efficiency assets such as bills; increasing the share of mid-to-high-yield assets; and improving the bank’s overall asset return level.

On the liability side, the bank adhered to deposit-led development and refined management, driving a favorable situation in which liabilities rose in both quantity and quality while the price declined overall.

At the same time, in enterprise-wide management of the asset-liability balance sheet, it continued to optimize institutional and governance mechanisms and improve capital management efficiency.

Xie Wei acknowledged that, “Although in 2025 interest-margin management achieved staged results, objectively speaking, compared with leading peers, the absolute value of our interest margin is still at a relatively not-so-ideal level.”

He said that in the next step, the bank will take multiple measures to strive for better interest-margin performance. First, focus on strategic value and push for deep optimization of the asset-liability structure; second, rely on digital and intelligent carriers to drive in-depth development across the five major tracks; third, strengthen a balanced approach to both volume and pricing to improve the bank’s capability in refined pricing management; fourth, reinforce liability quality by building an integrated settlement ecosystem across corporate, retail, and interbank business, and expand sources of low-cost, high-stability liabilities.

Personal asset management scale reaches 4.66 trillion yuan

“With the premise that the business stabilized in 2024, in 2025 China Everbright Bank’s retail business achieved a steady improvement in momentum.” said Zhang Jian, vice president of China Everbright Bank, at the results briefing.

According to the presentation, in 2025 China Everbright Bank’s personal asset management scale (including market value) reached 4.66 trillion yuan, up 20% year-on-year. Savings deposits were 1.71 trillion yuan, up 10%.

In recent years, overall retail credit in the industry has faced pressure. When discussing this topic, Zhang Jian provided the bank’s relevant data: in 2025 the bank’s retail loans (excluding business loans) increased by 45 billion yuan, up 3.05%, with both the incremental amount and the growth rate ranking among the top positions among joint-stock banks. Among them, the combined increase in mortgage lending and consumer loans was 28.2 billion yuan.

Zhang Jian noted that in 2026 bank retail business will still face certain pressure, but it will also present opportunities. The bank will focus on building five cards: big treasury management, big customer service, big consumption, big ecosystem, and intelligent agents.

Non-performing loan ratio at the lowest level in nearly 11 years

At the end of 2025, China Everbright Bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 1.26%, down 0.10 percentage points from the end of the previous year—its lowest level in nearly 11 years. The bank’s risk coverage capability continued to improve: the allowance coverage ratio was 200.72%, up 13.76 percentage points from the end of the previous year, the best level in nearly 10 years.

At the results briefing, vice president Cui Bingwen of China Everbright Bank outlined several measures behind the improvement in asset quality.

First is customer entry work, namely the white-list mechanism. Since its implementation across the bank last year, the total credit amount approved was about 950 billion yuan, and the white-list mechanism has recently been further refined.

Second is the construction of a risk monitoring system. At the head-office level, the bank has set up an enterprise-level risk monitoring system, while also establishing department-level risk monitoring systems in each of the various tracks and major business departments. These systems coordinate with one another and share information.

Third is the model management framework. In the digital age, with rapid growth in online business and inclusive finance, there is a need for a precise model and a model management framework to control risk.

Fourth is a mechanism that combines pacing adjustment with dispute mediation. In the past, retail credit—especially retail mortgage business—served as a ballast business for China Everbright Bank. But in recent years, under the impact of multiple factors, some customers’ repayment pressures have increased. For customers who are temporarily unable to perform but not in default, assistance is needed to help them get through the economic cycle. Currently, China Everbright Bank has established a four-level dispute mediation mechanism within the bank.

(The intern Cheng Xuebing also contributed to this article)

Cover image source: Daily Economic News