Listed for 20 years with dividends exceeding 1.4 trillion yuan, the China Construction Bank management team states they will strive to be a leading bank in technology finance, with retail risk control remaining a key focus this year.

Q&A with AI · How can AI help China Construction Bank drive its technology-finance transformation across more than 400 scenarios?

China Finance Journal, March 27 (Reporter Peng Kefeng) This evening, China Construction Bank officially released its 2025 performance report and held a performance briefing. CCB President Zhang Yi said that 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of CCB’s shareholding reform and listing, that cumulative dividends will exceed RMB 1.4 trillion, and that it has paid dividends of more than RMB 100 billion for three consecutive years. “In the future, CCB will strive to be a leading bank in technology finance, and will continue to unlock growth potential in retail credit.”

Double growth in revenue and net profit last year — “Five Major Initiatives” support stable credit growth

CCB’s latest annual report shows that, as of the end of last year, the Group’s total assets were RMB 45.63 trillion, up 12.47%; total liabilities were RMB 41.95 trillion, up 12.68%; and net core tier-one capital was RMB 3.46 trillion, up 9.46%. Operating income was RMB 740.71 billion, up 1.69%, and net profit was RMB 339.79 billion, up 1.04%. The non-performing loan ratio was 1.31%, and the provision coverage ratio was 233.15%. There were 12.73 million corporate clients and 785 million individual customers.

“At the income level, the decline in net interest income has narrowed quarter by quarter. Last year, the share of non-interest income increased by 3.65 percentage points, and net fee and commission income grew by 5.13%. Also, the contribution from overseas institutions and subsidiaries has been growing steadily; the net profit share of these two types of entities increased by 0.98 percentage points year over year.” CCB President Zhang Yi pointed out on site that the bank’s operating income has continued to grow positively since the second quarter, with full-year earnings growth improving quarter by quarter. The bank’s development quality has been further enhanced, and key operating indicators such as ROA, ROE, the capital adequacy ratio, the provision coverage ratio, and the cost-to-income ratio are balanced and coordinated, allowing it to continue to maintain leading advantages over peers.

In addition, the bank maintained stable growth in the total volume of credit throughout the year. The net amount of loans extended was RMB 26.93 trillion, up 7.53%; bond investments were RMB 12.43 trillion, up 20.51%; and the proportion to total assets rose by 1.82 percentage points.

Zhang Yi also introduced that, in terms of the “Five Major Initiatives,” as of the end of last year, CCB’s technology loan balance was RMB 5.25 trillion; it underwrote RMB 71.984 billion worth of tech innovation bonds; and it had cumulatively set up 28 equity-investment pilot funds for financial asset investment companies (AIC). For green finance, as of the end of last year, the balance of green loans was RMB 6 trillion, and throughout the year it issued green financial bonds domestically and overseas, totaling more than RMB 72 billion in RMB terms. For inclusive finance, as of the end of last year, the balance of inclusive loans to small and micro enterprises was RMB 3.83 trillion, with 3.69 million loan customers. For retirement finance, the bank increased support for the pension industry: the asset management scale of CCB’s pension pillar-two under China Construction Bank (CCB-Trust) was RMB 7,233.35 billion, and there were more than 250 sellable personal pension products. For digital finance, it focused on advancing the “Artificial Intelligence+” initiative: the number of active personal wallets for the digital yuan was 30.05 million accounts, and the balance of loans to core industries of the digital economy was RMB 891.926 billion.

Regarding investor returns, Zhang Yi further explained that 2025 is the 71st anniversary of China Construction Bank’s founding and the 20th anniversary of its shareholding reform and listing. Over the past 20 years, CCB has consistently delivered stable returns, and together with this round of final dividends, CCB’s cumulative dividends will exceed RMB 1.4 trillion.

Specifically, CCB plans to distribute cash dividends for 2025 at year-end of RMB 2.029 per 10 shares (including tax) for this proposal. The total dividend amounts to approximately RMB 53.079 billion. The cash dividend for the full year of 2025 is RMB 3.887 per 10 shares (including tax), with total dividends of approximately RMB 101.684 billion; the cash dividend payout ratio will remain at 30%.

Striving to be a leading bank in technology finance — AI was already deployed in more than 400 scenarios last year

Zhang Yi further introduced that recently, CCB’s capital strength has been further strengthened. CCB will adhere to a customer-centric approach, continuously promote integrated development across its three major business segments—corporate finance, personal finance, and treasury asset management—while accelerating the construction of an integrated and comprehensive operating framework. At the same time, the bank always places risk control as the top priority in the bank’s overall business and management, strengthening comprehensive, proactive, and intelligent risk management, preventing risks in development and promoting high-quality development in risk prevention.

“CCB will strive to be a leading bank in technology finance, and will continue to increase efforts to stimulate domestic demand, continuously unlocking growth potential in retail credit,” Zhang Yi said.

Vice President Lei Ming further introduced that, in response to the current development of artificial intelligence, CCB has always attached great importance to the scale of investment in financial technology. At present, CCB is stepping up efforts to clean up and organize non-structured data and historical stock data, aiming to enable AI to play an even greater role. Currently, CCB has already established an enterprise-level database with intelligent search capabilities, accelerating the promotion and application of intelligent marketing, intelligent customer service, intelligent investment advisory, intelligent risk control, and intelligent management. “Last year, AI was implemented in 400-plus scenarios within our bank, comprehensively covering six major areas. In terms of code, the contribution of AI code generation has already reached about 64%.” However, Lei Ming also emphasized that safety and reliability are always the bottom line for developing AI technologies and applications at a bank.

Regarding the retail credit risks that society is paying attention to, Vice President Li Jianjiang said that, facing this industry-wide common issue, CCB is strengthening credit risk management in the retail segment and deeply implementing intensive risk control for retail credit. “We achieved some results over the past year. The upward trend in non-performing individual loans last year narrowed year over year.” However, he also acknowledged that risk control in the retail segment remains a key focus for CCB, but this year CCB hopes to keep asset quality in the retail segment stable.

(China Finance Journal reporter Peng Kefeng)