Live coverage of the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank earnings presentation! Digital and intelligent transformation advances in depth, showcasing high-quality development.

On March 31, China Merchants Bank of China convened its 2025 annual performance briefing. China Merchants Bank of China Chairman Zhang Weizhong, along with numerous senior executives, attended the meeting and responded to questions regarding the bank’s business development, the effectiveness of its digital and intelligent transformation, and its artificial intelligence initiatives.

2025 is a year of escalation for China Merchants Bank of China as it implements its digital and intelligent strategy. Through adhering to the “three highs” requirements of setting higher goals, achieving higher efficiency in coordination, and delivering higher-quality development, the bank focused on meticulously developing its “five major tracks.” It also opened up new ground with the “three supers” initiatives—super platform, super products, and super systems—turning in a commendable set of results.

According to the financial report, last year China Merchants Bank of China recorded steady growth in operating performance, continued improvement in asset quality, and an orderly expansion of capital strength, further solidifying its stable and positive development trend. This includes: the bank’s asset scale breaking through the 10-trillion-yuan mark for the first time, net profit achieving double-digit growth for two consecutive years, and the non-performing loan ratio reaching its lowest level in nearly 11 years.

Looking back on its performance over the past year, Zhang Weizhong said, “On the track of high-quality development, by exploring new paths, new methods, and new models, we delivered China Merchants Bank of China’s answer and plan to the market, and we ran with China Merchants Bank of China’s acceleration and new speed.”

Asset scale breaks through 10 trillion yuan

The operating foundation continues to be strengthened

Service capability reaches a new level. The financial report shows that by the end of 2025, the bank group’s total assets exceeded 10 trillion yuan, reaching 100,817.46 billion yuan, up 6.55% from the end of the previous year. Of these, the total amount of loans in RMB and foreign currency (including bill discounting) was 57,039.73 billion yuan, increasing by 3,124.43 billion yuan from the end of the previous year, up 5.80%.

In the same period, the bank group’s total liabilities were 92,573.16 billion yuan, up 5,402.17 billion yuan from the end of the previous year, up 6.20%. Of these, total deposits in RMB and foreign currency were 55,824.35 billion yuan, up 4,364.76 billion yuan from the end of the previous year, up 8.48%.

In terms of operating results, during the reporting period, China Merchants Bank of China achieved operating income of 1,739.64 billion yuan, an increase of 32.16 billion yuan year over year, up 1.88%. It achieved attributable net profit of 500.17 billion yuan, an increase of 47.60 billion yuan year over year, up 10.52%, and achieved double-digit growth for two consecutive years.

At the same time, the bank’s weighted average return on net assets (ROE) was 6.76%, up 0.48 percentage points from the previous year; the cost-to-income ratio was 28.50%, down 0.66 percentage points from the previous year.

In addition, China Merchants Bank of China adheres to both “controlling new risks and reducing legacy risks,” and asset quality has improved steadily. By the end of the reporting period, the group’s non-performing loan balance and non-performing loan ratio achieved “both declines” compared with the end of the previous period.

By the end of the reporting period, China Merchants Bank of China’s non-performing loan amount was 719.90 billion yuan, down 11.64 billion yuan from the end of the previous year; the non-performing loan ratio was 1.26%, down 0.10 percentage points from the end of the previous year, the lowest level in nearly 11 years. In the same period, the bank’s provision coverage ratio was 200.72%, up 13.76 percentage points from the end of the previous year, the best level in nearly 10 years.

Worth noting is that last year, China Merchants Bank of China also coordinated external capital replenishment and internal capital accumulation, completing the conversion of 498.37 billion yuan of convertible bonds, setting a record for the largest single conversion in A-share history. Through deepening its capital-intensive transformation and refined management, the bank built a capital endogenous recycling mechanism of “profit growth—capital accumulation—business development.”

Focus on “five major tracks” and develop the real economy with precision

Notable results in strategy implementation

The “five major tracks” are key initiatives through which China Merchants Bank of China deeply implements the “five essays on finance” and serves the real economy. They are also the main areas where the bank’s digital and intelligent strategy is deeply implemented at the business level. In 2025, the “five major tracks” businesses advanced from “expanding scale” to “strengthening quality,” providing support for the real economy with high-quality financial services.

Specifically, in the field of technology finance, the bank innovated a “Group Big Sci-Tech Innovation” service system, building an operating model of “commercial bank + investment bank + ecosystem,” improving a “5+7+X” product system, and upgrading the digital and intelligent platform “Moxiangjing” to version 3.0, achieving a sustained improvement in the ecosystem capability level of the technology finance track as a whole. By the end of the reporting period, the bank’s technology finance loan scale (People’s Bank of China statistical scope) was 10,470.92 billion yuan, serving more than 256,000 technology enterprises, including serving over 80% of technology enterprise listed companies nationwide.

Meanwhile, China Merchants Bank of China also jointly built the FTC financial technology ecosystem community, jointly organized a “scientists entrepreneurship camp,” and held more than 1,800 “tech salon” events, connecting nearly 100,000 ecosystem partners and technology enterprises.

In the supply chain finance area, business growth has been rapid. By the end of the reporting period, the bank had cumulatively served 37,408 upstream and downstream customers in the supply chain, up 97.76% from the end of the previous year. In 2025, online supply chain business volume was 7,871.13 billion yuan, up 194.82% year over year.

It is reported that last year, China Merchants Bank of China also built all-scenario, end-to-end, and full-lifecycle digital and intelligent solutions, focusing on key industries such as power and energy, petroleum and petrochemicals, rail transportation, communications, and logistics. It promoted precise services with a “one chain, one policy” approach and rolled out benchmark businesses such as the country’s first “China Railway transport bills and documents,” as well as full-warehouse registration for financing against pledged movable assets, effectively breaking through barriers in traditional financing scenarios.

In inclusive finance, China Merchants Bank of China achieved centralized and efficiency-enhancing growth in inclusive business through digital and intelligent enablement. By the end of the reporting period, the bank’s inclusive “two-increment” loan balance was 5,239.91 billion yuan, up 12.51% from the end of the previous year. The incremental amount reached a new high in nearly four years, ranking second among joint-stock commercial banks for the annual increment. Inclusive “two-increment” customer numbers reached 509,800, up 24.22% from the end of the previous year.

In cross-border finance, China Merchants Bank of China also continues to expand its service boundaries. By the end of the reporting period, the bank’s cross-border transaction settlement volume was 44,931 billion yuan, up 44% year over year. The balance of cross-border loans in RMB and foreign currency was 3,363 billion yuan, up 27% from the end of the previous year.

In addition, in treasury and finance management, by the end of the reporting period, the bank managed individual AUM balance (including market value) of 46,645.33 billion yuan, up 20.26% from the end of the previous year. The group’s subsidiary asset management scale was 33,604.69 billion yuan, up 23.66% from the end of the previous year.

Deepen reform to reshape the core

Committed to building a benchmark for digital and intelligent transformation

Currently, AI technology is moving from “perception and cognition” to a new stage of “decision-making and execution.” Facing the next round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, senior management at China Merchants Bank of China also specifically discussed their views on the integration of AI and finance, and stated that it will accelerate its transformation pace.

“Today’s external environment has undergone tremendous changes. Especially in the technology environment, a new technological era—an even potentially subversive era—has already arrived. It is necessary to re-examine finance with AI-native thinking,” said Zhang Weizhong.

It is known that, currently, China Merchants Bank of China has established a head-office-level artificial intelligence center, built a thousand-card intelligent computing foundation, constructed an enterprise-level knowledge asset management system, promoted large-scale application of artificial intelligence, and issued a white paper on an “artificial intelligence +” application plan as well as an implementation action plan for China Merchants Bank of China’s artificial intelligence initiatives for 2026. It also systematically advances the upgrading of intelligent services and the reshaping of productive forces.

In improving digital operational efficiency, the bank also improved an end-to-end online operations system, promotes customer acquisition and customer activation through linkage between online and offline efforts, builds digital and intelligent operational service and execution platforms, embeds an “AI + enterprise framework” dual-wheel driving model into the basic operations transformation, and creates large-scale intelligent AI factories at the corporate system level to handle tasks such as traditional operations’ centralized production and human-machine collaboration in related business processing.

In strengthening digital risk control capabilities, the bank, by building an enterprise-level risk monitoring system of “Big Satellite + Small Radar,” established a risk monitoring center led by the Tianyan risk monitoring and early-warning system. It uses big data and artificial intelligence technologies to improve risk monitoring, measurement, and pricing management, strengthens intelligent risk control for new types of business, and comprehensively enhances risk forecasts and operating effectiveness and quality.

In addition, China Merchants Bank of China is also accelerating the development of digital infrastructure. This includes advancing the implementation of the enterprise framework project, promoting architecture reshaping in key areas, coordinating the construction of various major systems, speeding up the bank’s data center construction, and providing technical support for optimization of business processes and implementation of business scenarios. Meanwhile, relevant achievements also received the People’s Bank of China’s awards for financial technology development—first, second, and third prizes. (CIS)

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