"Retail Foundation-Building, Corporate Banking Filling the Gap" Path Clarified, Ping An Bank President Ji Guangheng: Transformation Not Complete, Hardest Period Has Passed

China Securities Journal, March 23 (Reporter Liang Kezhi) — In a market environment characterized by low interest rates and weak demand, Ping An Bank delivered a “pressured but not stalled” performance report for 2025.

At the March 23 earnings release, management led by President Ji Guangheng emphasized that the most difficult operating cycle for Ping An Bank has passed, and the bank will fully return to the growth track in 2026.

Ping An Bank’s 2025 annual report shows that during the reporting period, the bank achieved operating income of 131.442 billion yuan, a decrease of 10.4% year-on-year; net profit was 42.633 billion yuan, down 4.2% year-on-year.

“2025 was a year of extreme operational pressure, but also a key year for laying a solid foundation for the future,” said President Ji Guangheng at the earnings meeting. As strategic reforms deepen, the path to bottoming retail business and filling gaps in corporate business is becoming clearer, but the transformation is still ongoing.

Retail business stabilizes, with phased decline in scale

Data shows that Ping An’s retail business in 2025 exhibited typical characteristics of “active contraction and risk cleanup”: by the end of 2025, the personal loan balance was 1.73 trillion yuan, down 2.3% year-on-year, still in a contraction phase amid industry-wide pressure; retail business operating income declined year-on-year, but impairment losses significantly decreased, driving profit recovery in the segment.

Behind this change is the ongoing risk cleanup and customer restructuring over the past two years.

“We actively exited high-risk customer groups and absorbed existing risks, leading to a phased decline in scale. This adjustment is now basically complete,” Ji Guangheng said.

Structurally, the proportion of collateralized loans in retail loans increased to 62.9%, with asset quality significantly improved. The non-performing rate of personal loans dropped to 1.23%, down 0.16 percentage points from the previous year. Meanwhile, high-yield but volatile businesses such as credit cards and consumer loans are still in the recovery phase. The number of credit card circulation accounts reached 43.6931 million, with a transaction amount of 2.01 trillion yuan, with growth slowing.

On the other hand, the “second growth curve” of retail—wealth management—saw fee income of 5.061 billion yuan, up 15.8% year-on-year; among them, income from agency personal insurance was 1.292 billion yuan, up 53.3%.

Structural highlights continue to emerge. The AUM driven by payroll and bulk business increased by 19.3% year-on-year, and the contribution of comprehensive financial services to new wealth clients exceeded 50%, becoming an important customer acquisition channel.

However, the retail customer base remains stagnant. At the end of 2025, Ping An Bank’s retail AUM was 4.24 trillion yuan, up 1.1% year-on-year, with growth significantly slowing; private banking clients’ AUM approached 2 trillion yuan, but only grew slightly compared to the previous year.

Regarding the next steps for retail, Ji Guangheng stated that the bank will “deepen the promotion of integrated revenue credit banking, strengthen the wealth banking of insurance and banking, and build low-cost digital banking”; promote the volume and efficiency of fee-based products on the asset side; fully reduce interest expense on liabilities; and leverage Ping An Group to deepen full lifecycle management of individual clients.

“Corporate business is filling the gap” amid intensified industry competition

In contrast to retail contraction, corporate business became the main “growth driver” for Ping An Bank in 2025.

The annual report shows that by the end of 2025, the corporate loan balance was 1.66 trillion yuan, up 3.5% year-on-year, with general corporate loans growing by 9.2%, approaching double digits; the number of corporate clients increased by 13.2% to 966,000.

In terms of investment, the bank has clearly tilted toward policy-oriented sectors. Loans in fields such as technology finance, green finance, and manufacturing saw good growth, with green loans increasing by 12.2% year-on-year and technology loans by 9.8%.

Meanwhile, supply chain finance and cross-border business expanded rapidly. The total supply chain financing volume for the year approached 2 trillion yuan, up 23.1% year-on-year; cross-border trade financing grew by 30.1%.

However, the “filling the gap” in corporate business has not come without costs.

On one hand, industry competition has intensified significantly. Amid overall weak credit demand, banks are competing fiercely for quality assets. Ji Guangheng admitted, “Currently, all banks are increasing their corporate business efforts, and competition is becoming more intense.”

On the other hand, asset quality pressures are beginning to surface. The non-performing rate of corporate loans in 2025 was 0.87%, at a relatively low level, but up 0.17 percentage points from the previous year. The annual report acknowledged that risks in key areas such as real estate still require ongoing attention.

At the earnings meeting, Ping An Bank’s management stated that they expect asset quality to remain stable in 2026, with non-performing loan inflow and inflow rate continuing to decline.

Return to growth in 2026?

With clear paths for retail bottoming and corporate filling, Ping An Bank reiterated its goal to “emerge from the pain of transformation and return to the growth track.”

Looking at the annual report, the first issue is net interest margin pressure. In 2025, net interest margin fell to 1.78%, down 9 basis points year-on-year. Although the decline narrowed, it remains in a low range. By reducing the cost of liabilities, the bank lowered the deposit interest payout rate by 42 basis points for the year, partially offsetting the decline in asset yields, but the room for further compression is limited.

Second, the income structure faces pressure. Non-interest net income declined by 18.5% year-on-year, with wealth management and investment trading businesses experiencing increased market-driven volatility, indicating that a stable fee income system has yet to be established.

“the most difficult operating period is over,” Ji Guangheng conveyed positive signals at the earnings meeting, and explicitly set the goal for 2026 to “return to growth.” Specifically, the bank will “focus on core business areas, accelerate the pace of quality credit deployment, stabilize deposit growth, and achieve positive cycles in business volume, pricing, and risk, striving to re-enter the growth track.”