Countercyclical growth and margin expansion! Where does Chongqing Bank go after surpassing one trillion?

Ask AI · How Chongqing Bank Balances Corporate Strength and Retail Transformation?

Above the trillion-yuan threshold, Chongqing Bank clearly recognizes that optimizing its business structure and energizing retail momentum is the only way to achieve long-term, sound, and steady development.

Produced by | China Interview Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

When its total asset scale successfully crossed the trillion-yuan mark, and its major operating indicators achieved their best performance in nearly six years, Chongqing Bank officially joined China’s domestic banking industry’s “trillion-yuan club” with an outstanding 2025 annual report. It became a benchmark example of financial enabling of the real economy in the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle construction. Behind the impressive dual-engine achievements of scale and efficiency driving together, and continuous improvements in asset quality, the market has also paid close attention to and discussed its “80/20 split” credit structure. Starting from this new trillion-yuan beginning, Chongqing Bank is not trapped in a structural imbalance dilemma; rather, by adhering to its positioning and taking initiative in serving national strategies and local development, its current structural characteristics are the result of phased strategic focus. In the future, it will further leverage its corporate strengths to consolidate its base, and activate new momentum through retail transformation, charting a high-quality development path that combines regional characteristics with long-term value.

In 2025, Chongqing Bank turned in an excellent set of results leading its peers, with core operating indicators achieving a breakthrough in excess of leaps. This showcased strong development resilience and growth potential. At year-end, total assets reached RMB 1.03 trillion, up 20.67% year over year, with the growth rate ranking among the top group of city commercial banks that have released annual reports. Deposits and loans rose to RMB 8B and RMB 10.3k, respectively, with year-over-year growth rates all exceeding 19%. Deposit and loan increments have remained the No. 1 position among Chongqing peers for two consecutive years, and its position as the mainstay of financial services has been continuously strengthened.

Its profitability is also noteworthy. For the full year, operating income was RMB 565.7B, and net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 531.29B, up 10.48% and 10.49% year over year, respectively. In an environment where industry net interest margins continued to narrow, Chongqing Bank’s net interest margin rebounded by 4 basis points to 1.39%, reflecting a steady improvement in profitability. Asset quality remained steady: the non-performing loan ratio fell to 1.14%, down 0.11 percentage points from the prior year, and the provision coverage ratio reached 245.58%, indicating sufficient risk-resilience capacity and laying a solid foundation for continued development.

Behind these impressive achievements is Chongqing Bank’s strategic commitment to deeply integrate into national strategies and precisely serve regional development. As a local corporate financial institution rooted in Chongqing, the bank closely aligns with the development of modern industrial systems, directing credit resources precisely toward emerging productive forces such as advanced manufacturing, technological innovation, and green low-carbon sectors. In 2025, the outstanding balances of manufacturing loans and medium- and long-term loans grew by more than 20% and 30%, respectively; loans to technology-based enterprises surged by 60%; both green credit and inclusive small and micro loans achieved double-digit growth. At the same time, the incremental growth in manufacturing loans and the growth rate reached the highest level in nearly five years. Additionally, through a specialized team mechanism to deeply serve the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle and the Western Land-Sea New Corridor, relevant financing balances increased by 27% and 86% year over year, respectively. The bank supported nearly 150 major projects, and for three key metrics related to bond underwriting by non-financial enterprises, it ranked No. 1 in Chongqing and led among western legal-person financial institutions, ensuring that financial liquidity precisely irrigates the regional real economy.

Market attention has been focused on the bank’s “80/20 split” credit structure—specifically, corporate loans comprising 77.15% and retail loans comprising 18.2%. Retail loans declined slightly year over year by 0.94%, which may seem like business imbalance; in fact, it is an active choice by Chongqing Bank grounded in its own positioning and aligned with regional development needs. For regional city commercial banks, the assessment of business structure cannot be separated from the core mission of serving the local economy. The current corporate-led pattern is an inevitable result of seizing strategic opportunities and deeply cultivating the real-economy main business.

This high growth in corporate business is not blind expansion, but rather precise efforts focused on high-quality tracks. Its loan allocation is highly aligned with national industrial policies and regional development plans, concentrating on low-risk, high-growth areas such as advanced manufacturing, technological innovation, and green development. Asset quality is solid and development resilience is strong. At the same time, the firm support from state-owned capital shareholders further confirms the development outlook: Chongqing Expressway Group recently increased its shareholding through conversion of convertible bonds, adding 151 million shares; its combined shareholding proportion reached 4.99%, making it an important shareholder and demonstrating a high level of recognition of the bank’s operating performance and future potential. With continued conversion of RMB 13 billion in convertible bonds, the core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio will be significantly improved, effectively easing capital pressure and providing solid support for ongoing business expansion.

Of course, the share of retail loans is relatively low and the scale has contracted slightly, which is indeed a phased shortcoming in current development. On the one hand, under the influence of the macroeconomic environment, residents’ consumption willingness, and intensifying industry competition, retail business faces challenges such as declining yields and pressure on asset quality; in 2025, the non-performing loan ratio for retail loans rose to 3.23%, which to a certain extent constrains the intensity of loan issuance. On the other hand, during a phase when major regional projects are concentrated in execution and demand for real-economy financing is strong, Chongqing Bank prioritizes allocating resources to corporate areas with more stable returns and stronger spillover effects—a pragmatic move that balances short-term benefits and long-term responsibilities. This structural difference is a strategic trade-off in a specific development stage, not an irresolvable development dilemma.

Above the trillion-yuan threshold, Chongqing Bank clearly recognizes that optimizing its business structure and energizing retail momentum is the only path to achieving long-term, sound, and steady development. In the future, the bank will not simply shrink its corporate business. Instead, while consolidating its corporate strengths, it will use digital transformation as the lever to accelerate improving the quality and efficiency of retail business, thereby forming a dual-engine development pattern of “corporate strength and retail empowerment,” building a more balanced and more resilient business structure.

Consolidate the corporate fundamentals and continuously expand strategic advantages. Continue to stay tightly aligned with national strategies such as the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle and the Western Land-Sea New Corridor, and deeply cultivate core areas including advanced manufacturing, technological innovation, and green finance—maintaining quality and scale advantages in corporate business. Meanwhile, deepen “commercial bank + investment bank” collaboration to expand intermediary businesses such as bond underwriting and wealth management, enhance its capacity for comprehensive financial services, and reduce reliance on traditional interest income from credit.

Accelerate retail transformation and energize endogenous growth momentum. Centering on its positioning as “a bank for citizens,” empower retail business upgrades through digitalization. Relying on the “456” digital transformation system, implement applications such as “Chongyin XiaoAI” and “smart-and-digital business halls,” optimize the user experience of mobile banking services, and expand online customer acquisition channels. Focus on three core areas—consumer finance, housing credit, and pension finance—grow self-operated consumer loan scale such as “Jie e-Loan” (捷e贷), and develop housing loans in a steady manner. Seize opportunities from pension finance policies; loans to the pension industry have already achieved growth of over 120%. At the same time, improve the wealth management system, enrich its product shelf, enhance customers’ asset allocation capabilities, and drive retail business to shift from scale contraction to steady growth.

Strengthen capital and risk control support to lay a solid foundation for development. Continue to advance the conversion of convertible bonds, broaden capital replenishment channels, and improve capital adequacy levels to provide capital protection for retail business expansion. At the same time, optimize the retail risk control system: leverage big data and artificial intelligence technologies to precisely identify risks, reduce the non-performing loan ratio in retail, balance business development with risk control, and achieve a high-quality expansion of retail business.

Crossing the trillion-yuan threshold is an important milestone in Chongqing Bank’s development history, and also a new starting point for moving toward higher-quality development. The current differentiation in credit structure is a phased marker of the bank’s commitment to its regional financial mission and to serving the real economy, not a constraint on development. In the future, Chongqing Bank will continue to take serving local areas as its root and reform and innovation as its wings. While consolidating its corporate business advantages, it will steadily promote retail transformation to achieve dynamic optimization and balanced development of its business structure, play a greater role in the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle, and provide a “Chongqing example” that can be referenced for high-quality development among city commercial banks in China.

Personal opinion, for reference only