Bank branch "Addition and Subtraction": Postal Savings Bank reduced 209 branches in one year, Agricultural Bank added over 250 branches

In 2025, while the trend of reducing offline branches in our country’s banks has not yet stopped, some banks also added branch outlets.

As of the end of 2025, among the six state-owned major banks and 9 A-share listed joint-stock banks, 7 banks saw their number of operating outlets decline compared with the end of the previous year, including Postal Savings Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China (601988), Minsheng Bank (600016), Industrial Bank (601166), Ping An Bank (000001), and Huaxia Bank (600015). Among them, Postal Savings Bank of China reduced the most—down by 209 to 39,015 outlets; China Construction Bank (601939) saw its domestic outlets decrease by more than 120. By contrast, Agricultural Bank of China increased its domestic outlets by 251 compared with the end of the previous year.

It is worth noting that many banks have continued to increase their investment in county-level regions’ outlets. For example, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said it added 141 new outlets in county and township areas, raising its county-level coverage ratio to 87.5%; Agricultural Bank of China (601288) kept its total outlet count stable, with its county-level coverage ratio reaching 100%.

Postal Savings Bank reduced more than 200 outlets in one year,

Agricultural Bank added 251

Based on the offline operating outlet situation of the above A-share listed banks, compared with joint-stock banks, the state-owned major banks clearly led by a wide margin in the number of outlets last year, especially Postal Savings Bank, Agricultural Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398), China Construction Bank, and Bank of China—all of which had more than 10k outlets. However, in terms of net increase or decrease, the reduction in the number of operating outlets by the state-owned major banks was clearly greater than that of the joint-stock banks mentioned above.

For the state-owned major banks, as of the end of last year, the number of operating outlets of Postal Savings Bank was the highest, totaling 39,015, including 7,420 self-operated outlets and 31,595 agency outlets. But compared with the end of 2024, the bank’s number of operating outlets declined by 209.

Agricultural Bank of China’s number of operating outlets exceeded 20k. As of the end of last year, excluding institutions at the head office level, the bank’s domestic branches totaled 23,118, an increase of 251 compared with the end of the previous year.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had more than 15k operating outlets. In its annual report, the bank stated that it had 15,434 operating outlets, 19,223 self-service banks, 72,026 smart devices, and 47,017 ATMs.

In addition, China Construction Bank and Bank of China both had more than 10k branches last year. Specifically, China Construction Bank had 14,041 domestic institutions (excluding head-office-level institutions); Bank of China had 10,255 domestic commercial banking institutions (including the head office, first-tier branches, directly affiliated branches, second-tier branches, and grassroots branches). Among these, there were 38 first-tier branches and directly affiliated branches, 376 second-tier branches, and 9,840 grassroots branches (total 10,254).

Compared with the end of the previous year, the number of institutions at both of the above banks decreased. Among them, China Construction Bank saw a reduction of 121.

As of the end of last year, the number of domestic branches and institutions of Bank of Communications was fewer than those of the above state-owned major banks, at 2,820 (excluding the head office).

For joint-stock banks, as of the end of last year, both Minsheng Bank and Industrial Bank had more than 2,000 operating outlets. Among them, Minsheng Bank stated in its annual report that it had already established 41 first-tier branches in China, 2 first-tier branches overseas, and had built 107 second-tier branches (including off-site branches). The total number of branch-level institutions was 150; Industrial Bank had 2,090 operating outlets in total (excluding the head office and licensed special business institutions, and overseas branches). Compared with the end of the previous year, the outlets of both banks fell.

In addition to Minsheng Bank and Industrial Bank, as of the end of last year, Ping An Bank and Huaxia Bank also saw their number of operating outlets decline compared with the previous year.

Besides these, the other A-share listed joint-stock banks saw varying degrees of increases in their operating outlets last year. For example, in its annual report, China Merchants Bank (600036) stated that, on the offline channel side, the company continued to promote the building of domestic branch institutions and optimize its branch layout. In 2025, it added 7 net new operating outlets, optimized and relocated 123 existing operating outlets, further expanding the effective coverage of outlet-based services.

Outlet resources tilt toward county-level areas,

ABC’s county-level coverage reaches 100%

County-level outlets are a key support for our country’s banking service system, rooted in the grassroots and connecting urban and rural areas. Based on annual reports, many banks mentioned initiatives to focus more on outlets in county-level areas.

For example, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China stated in its annual report that in 2025 it completed optimization and adjustment of 474 outlets, including 187 outlets in key urban areas and regions through layout optimization. It投入新投入了141 new outlets in county and township areas, raising the county-level outlet coverage ratio to 87.5%, and further strengthening the ongoing alignment between outlet layout and regional socioeconomic resources.

Agricultural Bank of China maintained its total outlet count stable, focusing on moving outlets to towns and townships, continuously expanding the coverage of financial services, and achieving a county-level coverage ratio of 100%. In addition, on the mechanism side, it strengthened the replenishment of “Sannong” (agriculture, rural areas, farmers) county-level employees, skewed the allocation of compensation resources, strengthened performance appraisal incentives and constraint mechanisms, and guided employees to continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of their work in rural revitalization.

Bank of China also said it continuously strengthened financial investment in key targeted assistance counties, and optimized the layout of county-level institutions. It built more than 1,600 rural revitalization characteristic outlets and worked to improve the capability of “Sannong” services.

In 2025, China Construction Bank implemented 248 outlet relocation and optimization construction projects, including 80 county-level outlets; it established 32 new operating outlets, including 23 county-level outlets.

Bank of Communications increased its efforts to build county-level outlets, promoting the construction of the “Cloud BOC” remote video service to enhance the integrated capability of online and offline financial channels.

Postal Savings Bank stated that: “Deep coverage of business outlets across urban and rural areas is the core feature of our bank’s differentiated competitiveness.” At the same time, through a dynamic adjustment mechanism of “build, relocate, transform, and close,” it continued to optimize its outlet structure and improve resource allocation efficiency. Since the special deployment for outlet layout optimization and image enhancement in 2024, it had累计主动调整147 outlets with overlapping development or constraints on growth. It also actively seized the trends of urbanization and industrial development, and in the top 100 counties by economic strength nationwide, top 1,000 towns, provincial-level and above key targeted assistance counties for rural revitalization, as well as various key areas such as new towns, new zones, and new parks, it cumulatively established 76 new outlets.

For joint-stock banks, Industrial Bank said that as of the end of last year, the bank had 267 operating outlets in rural and county-level areas, covering 1,394 counties with financing services; it had issued 118 county-level special industry program plans covering 28 branches.

China Merchants Bank said that as of the end of 2025, it had established 133 county-level outlets, up by 2 compared with the end of the previous year, effectively enhancing the coverage of financial services in county-level areas.

Older-adult-friendly services at outlets continue to improve,

Many banks promote green outlet construction

When it comes to the construction of older-adult-friendly outlets, how did the state-owned major banks do it last year? In its annual report, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China stated that last year it cumulatively built more than 9,300 pension-finance characteristic outlets. It also innovatively launched an online appointment-and-doorstep service model for elderly customers, providing them with better, more efficient, and more caring services.

Agricultural Bank of China, meanwhile, deeply advanced the rural conditions service project. It cumulatively built 3,300 demonstration outlets for older-adult-friendly services. It provided door-to-door services to 1.3 million visits for elderly people and other customer groups, and the remote banking “care hotline” provided “one-click direct transfer to a human agent” service for elder customers throughout the year, reaching 8 million.

Bank of China required that 100% of its off-site outlets implement the elderly-care service standards, building more than 1,000 pension-finance characteristic outlets and setting up more than 200 “community elderly-assistance service alliances.”

For China Construction Bank, it improved the level of older-adult-friendly services. Around 13.6k outlets have been equipped with 23 commonly used resources for older-adult-friendly services, and its “Jian Yang An” pension-finance characteristic outlets expanded and were upgraded to 511.

Bank of Communications posted 160 branch-level elder-friendly outlets to improve older-adult-friendly facilities and services. It continued to refine online channels such as the “Care Edition” mobile banking and “Cloud BOC” to make it convenient for elder users to handle business online without leaving home.

Postal Savings Bank fully launched a special campaign called “Warm Yang Jin Hui.” It focused on improving service optimization, smart enablement, product adaptation, and protection for consumer rights and interests, among other areas, to build an age-friendly service system supported by “Jin Hui cares for the elderly,” “Jin Hui assists the elderly,” “Jin Hui benefits the elderly,” and “Jin Hui protects the elderly.” It released an older-adult-friendly service handbook for operating outlets and actively built “Jin Hui Branch” characteristic elderly service outlets, providing elderly customers with an even warmer and more convenient service experience.

Regarding outlet construction, many banks disclosed their status of building green characteristic outlets. For example, Bank of China’s annual report stated that it had built 593 green finance characteristic outlets; China Construction Bank cumulatively built and opened 1,881 green outlets.

In addition, for green outlets, China Merchants Bank continued to promote modular prefabricated/assembly-style fit-out and decoration work for outlets, and compiled modular fit-out decoration “Design Standardized Handbook” and “Management Process Guidance Handbook.” It also carried out special training on modular fit-out decoration for outlets to improve construction professionals’ capabilities. During the reporting period, it implemented modular fit-out decoration construction for 82 outlets, of which 50 had already been completed.

In terms of intelligent services, Agricultural Bank of China said it improved the integrated online-and-offline comprehensive service channels with a “six-in-one” linkage: “physical outlets + self-service equipment + mobile banking + inclusive agriculture service stations + mobile service vehicles + remote banking.”

In addition, Bank of China improved the level of intelligent services at outlets. Relying on portable intelligent teller counters, it added support for expanding outside-branch operations to handle digital debit cards, issue authentication tools, and other businesses, helping to拓展 key product development.

Additionally, by the end of 2025, Postal Savings Bank had累计 achieved the cloud counter application of 48.8k devices. Among them, 11.2k self-service devices achieved remote business review through cloud counters. During the business review process, it applied “digital humans” to assist manual review, improving operating efficiency by 40.00%. It also applied cloud counters for remote handling for 36.6k mobile expansion and sales devices, increasing the volume of outside operations transactions by 38.89%, effectively enhancing the outlet’s customer acquisition capability. At 1,003 outlets, it deployed intelligent counters, and at more than 500 outlets it reduced the number of manual teller counters, freeing nearly 300 people to transition into marketing and service work.

Meanwhile, China Construction Bank optimized the configuration of self-service channels. The bank operated 40,401 self-service ATMs and 34,292 smart teller machines, fully supporting business processing.

(Editor: Cao Yanyan HA008）

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