Zheshang Bank 2025 Financial Report: Adhering to the Primary Strategy of "Deep Cultivation in Zhejiang" to Build Differentiated Development Advantages

On March 30, Zhejiang Merchants Bank released its 2025 annual performance report. The report shows that the bank, with the vision of “a first-class commercial bank,” steadily and effectively responds to economic cycle fluctuations, with overall stable operating indicators. Total assets reached 3.48 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.68% from the end of the previous year; operating income was 34.8k yuan, and net profit attributable to the bank’s shareholders was 62.51B yuan; asset quality remains stable and improving, with the non-performing loan ratio further decreasing by 0.02 percentage points compared to the end of last year.

Analysis suggests that behind the 2025 performance is Zhejiang Merchants Bank’s commitment to long-termism. Since the beginning of the year, the bank has followed the principles of commercial banking operations, prioritizing “deepening Zhejiang” as its primary strategy to develop professional management capabilities, avoiding short-term gains through excessive scale expansion or sacrificing risk control, and laying a solid foundation for long-term steady development while serving the broader economy.

From the financial report, Zhejiang Merchants Bank’s fundamentals remain stable in 2025, with strong resilience in operations, fully reflecting the bank’s confidence and determination for high-quality development under the support and care of Zhejiang Province.

Steady operation: balancing business structure adjustment and risk management

The annual report shows that in 2025, Zhejiang Merchants Bank advanced along the “Four Lines” strategy of management-based operation, service-oriented excellence, technological empowerment, and talent strengthening, exerting efforts on both sides of assets and liabilities, strengthening fundamentals, adjusting structures, enhancing compliance, and controlling risks, with all indicators progressing steadily.

In terms of scale, the bank optimized its asset-liability structure, with steady growth in business scale. In 2025, the bank implemented the risk philosophy of “low risk, balanced returns,” proactively adjusted asset allocations, and reduced high-risk assets such as real estate and online lending, laying a foundation for medium- and long-term asset quality. By the end of 2025, total assets were 3.48 trillion yuan, up 4.68% from the end of last year; loans and advances totaled 1.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.53%. Total liabilities were 3.27 trillion yuan, up 4.83%; among which, the balance of deposits was 2.04 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.30%. The bank continued to lower its deposit interest payout rate, with the average interest paid on deposits decreasing by 32 basis points compared to last year.

Regarding asset quality, structural optimization was the focus. The bank strictly controlled credit approval thresholds and accelerated the cleanup of existing risks, maintaining stable and improving asset quality. As of the end of 2025, the non-performing loan ratio was 1.36%, down 0.02 percentage points from the end of last year. On top of intensified risk disposal efforts, indicators such as the provision coverage ratio and capital adequacy ratio continued to meet regulatory requirements, maintaining strong risk buffer capacity.

In terms of profitability, influenced by asset structure adjustments and bond market fluctuations, the bank achieved operating income of 12.93B yuan, a decrease of 7.59% from last year, with net interest income and non-interest net income at 34.8k yuan and 19.2k yuan respectively, with trends consistent with industry peers. Net profit attributable to the bank’s shareholders was 32.7k yuan, down 14.85% year-on-year.

Facing cyclical challenges such as “low growth, low demand, and low interest margins” in the industry, the bank’s overall operations have entered a critical stage of structural adjustment and performance recovery. “Profitability faces pressure mainly due to declining interest rates, market volatility, and the need to pass benefits to the real economy,” Zhejiang Merchants Bank management stated. In 2025, the bank achieved a full-year net interest margin of 1.60%, down 11 basis points from last year, with a significantly narrower decline compared to the previous year.

Focusing on professionalism: responding to cycle fluctuations with expertise

“Long-termism” and “professional management” are repeatedly emphasized in Zhejiang Merchants Bank’s annual report. Facing profit pressure, the new leadership team adheres to the principles of commercial banking operations, employing long-term strategies, and insists on professional judgment, professional decision-making, and professional management. Through the promotion of the “1155” operating strategy, the bank aims to build long-term development certainty and ensure a smooth transition.

The “1155” strategy is summarized as “one main line, one core capability, five-dimensional coordination, five groups linkage,” meaning “adhering to a main business line centered on customer needs; enhancing a fundamental corporate-level industry research capability; balancing five operational dimensions—customer groups, risk, structure, profitability, and scale; strengthening five linkages—corporate and financial markets, stock and flow, interest and non-interest income, domestic and overseas, basic services and value-added services.” In practice, the bank expands corporate business, solidifies retail banking, and strengthens financial markets, promoting business synergy and comprehensive management to achieve high-quality development.

Specifically, the bank maintains a customer-centric approach, promoting structural optimization and customer growth. By the end of 2025, the total corporate loans and advances increased by 6.55% to 1.33 trillion yuan; retail assets under management reached 20.4k yuan, a 22.91% increase from the beginning of the year, the highest in nearly five years. The bank served over 290k corporate clients, an 11.83% increase; the number of individual clients (including debit and credit card customers) reached 18.6082 million, with 6.94 million new customers added during the year—3.5 times the previous year.

Meanwhile, Zhejiang Merchants Bank has continued to increase support in key areas such as the “Five Big Articles,” achieving a shared prosperity between finance and the real economy. In 2025, half of the new loans were directed toward science and technology innovation, green development, and inclusive finance. For example, as of the end of 2025, the balance of technology loans exceeded 270 billion yuan, serving over 35k tech-based enterprises. In recent years, one in three new corporate clients has been a technology company.

Building the foundation: consistently advancing the “Deepening Zhejiang” strategy

Behind the stable growth in customer base, risk management, structure, and scale, Zhejiang Province’s support has been the “fixed star” guiding Zhejiang Merchants Bank’s cycle-crossing and steady development. In 2025, Zhejiang Province clarified the bank’s future ten-year development path and provided a package of support measures to ensure smooth leadership transitions, team cohesion, and stability, injecting momentum for long-term high-quality growth.

As the only nationwide joint-stock bank headquartered in Zhejiang, Zhejiang Merchants Bank regards serving Zhejiang, Zhejiang merchants, and Zhejiang residents as a key mission. During the reporting period, the bank launched a new three-year “Deepening Zhejiang” action plan, with two-thirds of new credit directed within Zhejiang Province, nearly 1.2 trillion yuan in financing services, and major projects receiving over 62.51B yuan in new financing—doubling the amount compared to 2024.

By leveraging local differentiated services, the bank has steadily increased its market share and customer base within Zhejiang. By the end of 2025, the province’s deposit and loan balances were 633.3 billion yuan and 661.4 billion yuan respectively, with increases of 68.7 billion and 46.5 billion yuan from the start of the year, leading joint-stock commercial banks in growth, with provincial deposits ranking first among joint-stock banks for the first time. The bank’s service to local corporate clients, small and micro enterprises, and retail customers grew by 21.35%, 30.02%, and 31.12% respectively since the beginning of the year.

Industry experts believe that leveraging Zhejiang’s economic development advantages, with high-quality customer profiles and resilient interest margins, along with a differentiated regional layout, will provide strong support for sustainable future development.

Zhejiang Merchants Bank states that in 2026, it will anchor the vision of “a first-class commercial bank,” adhere to the long-term blueprint, and focus on deepening Zhejiang and serving the real economy. The bank will strengthen its customer base, risk compliance, Zhejiang’s core operations, technology, and culture, continuously build distinctive competitive advantages, and achieve steady long-term operation to start the “14th Five-Year Plan” well.