On-the-Ground Coverage of the Performance Meeting | Development Goals, Strategic Reforms, Dividends... Ping An Bank's "2025 Annual Performance Release Conference" focuses on these issues

Every reporter｜Pan Ting Every editor｜Dong Xingsheng

On March 23, Ping An Bank (000001.SZ, stock price 10.45 yuan, market value 202.8 billion yuan) held its “2025 Annual Performance Conference.” Ping An Bank President Ji Guangheng, Chief Financial Officer Xiang Youzhi, Chief Compliance Officer Wu Leiming, Vice President Fang Weihao, Assistant to the President Wang Jun, and Board Secretary Zhou Qiang addressed the hot issues of market concern.

In his opening remarks, Ji Guangheng pointed out that 2025 will be an extraordinary year, with the external environment remaining complex and severe, and domestic development facing many challenges. China’s economy demonstrates strong resilience, with economic operations making steady progress, and overall development shifting towards new and better directions. This year, Ping An Bank has gone through the challenges of transformation, withstands operational pressure, and lays a solid foundation for future high-quality development with a more pragmatic style and steadier pace.

On development goals: Striving to achieve a return to growth in operational targets

Ji Guangheng noted that from an industry perspective, the banking sector has entered a cycle of low interest rates, low spreads, and low returns, facing challenges such as insufficient effective credit demand, pressure on risk prevention, and narrowing profit margins. However, thanks to factors such as the coordinated development of macro policies, steady development of new productive forces, continuous expansion of emerging markets, economic growth, and optimized driving forces, along with deepening digital transformation and artificial intelligence, the operational models and service ecology of the financial industry have been comprehensively reshaped, injecting strong momentum into the transformation.

“2025 will be a tough year for Ping An Bank but also a year to solidify the foundation for future development.” Ji Guangheng bluntly stated, “In 2026, we will strive to achieve the operational target of returning to growth.”

It is understood that Ping An Bank will address some existing issues and, in combination with industry and its own characteristics, form new growth momentum.

“In 2025, Ping An Bank’s business operations will have many highlights.” Ji Guangheng pointed out that first, asset structure adjustment and optimization are underway, retail income is gradually increasing, corporate general loans maintain high growth, and efforts to serve the real economy are strengthened, with total assets growing by 2.7% compared to the end of the previous year, and corporate loan balances increasing by 3.5% compared to the end of the previous year, with good growth in loans to technology enterprises and green finance; second, refined management levels continue to improve, actively optimizing interest payment costs, with a general deposit interest rate of 1.65%, down 42 basis points year-on-year; third, asset quality continues to improve, with good risk resistance capacity; fourth, capital management is more refined, balancing internal accumulation and external supplementation, solidifying the foundation for sustainable development.

Annual report data shows that in 2025, Ping An Bank’s operating income and net profit attributable to shareholders decreased by 10.4% and 4.2% year-on-year, respectively. The decline in operating income narrowed by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year, while the decline in net profit remained the same year-on-year.

On strategic reform: Adhering to strategic steadiness, not every year can bring new tricks

“This year, at the internal work meeting of the entire bank, we proposed to maintain strategic steadiness, and it is not possible to bring new tricks every year, but rather to be persistent, step by step, to solidify the foundation and improve operations, frequently summarizing what we did right and what needs improvement.” Ji Guangheng pointed out that in terms of strategic approach, over the past two and a half years of strategic reform, Ping An Bank has accurately grasped the direction of the macro economy and adjusted its strategic approach in a timely manner. Based on the strategic foundation of strengthening retail, refining corporate services, and specializing in interbank operations, the entire bank has unified its thinking, focusing on business, performance management, and internal management, achieving retail business’s initial breakthroughs.

Specifically in each business and management area, first, the bottom line of retail business has basically been completed, with dawn beginning to show. By the end of 2025, Ping An Bank had 127.8963 million retail customers, an increase of 1.9% compared to the end of the previous year, managing retail customer assets (AUM) of 4.238409 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.1% compared to the end of the previous year.

Second, corporate business has developed in synergy and with integrity. By the end of 2025, corporate deposit balances reached 2.295255 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.2% compared to the end of the previous year; corporate loan balances reached 1.663546 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.5% compared to the end of the previous year.

Third, the intensity of asset quality management continues to strengthen, effectively promoting the reconstruction of the risk management system and enhancing the independence of risk management. High-risk retail stock assets have been largely cleared, and corporate asset quality remains good, with increased efforts to recover non-performing loans, significantly reducing credit risk costs, and continuously upgrading the industry’s collaborative mechanisms.

Fourth, comprehensive strengthening of refined management, improving quality and efficiency, continuously optimizing operational cost support for strategic and key business investments, reducing fixed and daily operating expenses, and enhancing the overall level of accounting at branches.

On dividends: Striving to create more value for investors

Ping An Bank’s 2025 annual profit distribution plan indicates a proposed cash dividend of 5.96 yuan for every 10 shares, totaling cash dividends of 11.566 billion yuan.

Regarding the reason for this cash dividend total being below 30% of net profit for the year, Ping An Bank explained that it primarily considered the challenges of industry development and its own operational development needs. On one hand, commercial banks currently face challenges such as narrowing spreads and insufficient effective credit demand, and strengthening endogenous capital accumulation helps enhance risk resistance capability; on the other hand, regulators have raised higher requirements for commercial banks’ capital adequacy levels, with the group’s core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio at 9.36% by the end of 2025, necessitating capital reserves to adapt to regulatory reforms. Additionally, to ensure stable business development, deepening strategic transformation and enhancing the capacity to serve the real economy also require sufficient capital support.

Ping An Bank stated that this profit distribution plan complies with the company’s articles of association and shareholder return plan, fully taking into account industry characteristics, development stages, profit levels, and comprehensive shareholder returns, with retained undistributed profits to be used to strengthen capital accumulation, support business development, and implement strategies. In the future, the bank will adhere to the strategic guidelines of “strengthening retail, refining corporate services, and specializing in interbank operations,” reinforce risk management, promote high-quality sustainable business development, and continuously create investment returns for shareholders.

Regarding dividends, Ji Guangheng stated that Ping An Bank has always attached great importance to shareholder interests, and this year still plans to maintain a reasonable dividend ratio, striving to create more value for investors.

On real estate risks: Trends are improving

Ping An Bank disclosed real estate risk management data in its 2025 annual report. By the end of 2025, the total balance of credit-related and potential credit risks in real estate, self-issued bond investments, and self-issued non-standard investments amounted to 251.357 billion yuan, a decrease of 21.980 billion yuan compared to the end of the previous year; the total balance of non-credit risk-bearing business such as investment funds, entrusted loans, cooperative institutions managing and selling trusts and funds, and underwriting debt financing tools amounted to 70.361 billion yuan, a decrease of 5.518 billion yuan compared to the end of the previous year.

“From the perspective of corporate real estate risks, both overdue and newly non-performing loans decreased last year.” Wu Leiming stated at the meeting that this year’s trend is also improving.