In 2025, Bank of Chongqing's performance exhibited a distinct duality. On one hand, scale and profitability metrics showed impressive results: total assets surpassed 1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.67%; operating income reached 15.113 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 5.654 billion yuan, both achieving growth exceeding 10% for the first time in six years. The net interest margin stood at 1.39%, ending a five-year consecutive decline and stabilizing with a 4 basis point increase. The non-performing loan ratio was 1.14%, marking a fourth consecutive year of decline.
On the other hand, structural and quality indicators revealed underlying concerns: the core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 8.53%, a significant drop of 1.35 percentage points from the previous year, indicating emerging capital replenishment pressure. The retail loan non-performing ratio rose against the trend to 3.23%, increasing by 52 basis points. Net fee and commission income was 598 million yuan, plunging 32.66% year-on-year, highlighting a clear lag in the development of intermediary businesses.
The scenario is one of scale advancing while capital retreats, interest margins stabilizing while non-interest income weakens, corporate banking excelling while retail banking worries—opportunities are present, but concerns persist. This portrayal is not just an annual snapshot of Bank of Chongqing but reflects the common growth challenges currently faced by regional banks.
**Volume and Price Rising: Sources of High Growth** In 2025, Bank of Chongqing's core operational data could be described as "advancing by leaps and bounds." At the end of the reporting period, the group's total assets amounted to 1,033.726 billion yuan, a substantial increase of 20.67% from the beginning of the year. Total loans reached 531.285 billion yuan, growing by 20.58%, while total deposits stood at 565.704 billion yuan, up 19.32%.
On the profit side, operating income was 15.113 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.48%, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 5.654 billion yuan, up 10.49% year-on-year. This marked the first time since 2020 that the bank achieved double-digit synchronous growth in both revenue and profit.
The primary growth engine came from the strong performance of its corporate banking segment. In 2025, the corporate loan balance reached 409.867 billion yuan, surging 30.95% year-on-year to a record high. Specifically, loan allocations were highly concentrated in government-related businesses—"leasing and business services" and "water conservancy, environment, and public facilities management." These two sectors together accounted for 56.59% of the total corporate loan portfolio.
This growth path is deeply intertwined with regional strategy. Bank of Chongqing is heavily involved in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle and the New Western Land-Sea Corridor construction, supporting nearly 150 major projects. This "local roots, serving the broader strategy" approach enabled the bank to rapidly expand its asset scale during a regional investment expansion cycle.
Notably, this round of growth did not come at the expense of interest margins. In 2025, Bank of Chongqing's net interest margin was 1.39%, up 4 basis points year-on-year, while the net interest spread was 1.35%, increasing by 13 basis points.
The key factor supporting the rebound in net interest margin was the optimization of liability costs. Data shows the bank's average cost rate of interest-bearing liabilities decreased significantly from 2.58% the previous year to 2.18% in 2025, a drop of 40 basis points. This was attributed to effective management of the deposit structure and the reduction of high-cost liabilities. In contrast, the average yield on interest-earning assets decreased by only 27 basis points to 3.53%. The larger decline in costs compared to revenues provided strong support for the interest margin.
**Structural Imbalance: Retail Business Becomes a "Bleeding Point"** Despite impressive overall performance, a closer look at the business structure reveals an unbalanced development at Bank of Chongqing. The most surprising aspect of this annual report was the rare loss reported by its retail banking segment. In 2025, the pre-tax profit for Bank of Chongqing's personal banking segment was -92.79 million yuan, compared to a profit of 444 million yuan in the same period the previous year.
The direct causes of the loss were the deterioration in asset quality and a singular revenue model. By the end of 2025, the retail loan non-performing ratio had climbed to 3.23%, an increase of 52 basis points from the start of the year. Meanwhile, the corporate loan non-performing ratio decreased from 0.9% to 0.71%. High credit costs in the retail segment, combined with the inherent nature of its business model, led to this outcome.
Financially, Bank of Chongqing's retail business shows distinct characteristics. On one hand, retail deposit growth was notable, with the personal deposit balance growing 22.90% year-end compared to the previous year, with deposit size even surpassing that of corporate deposits. However, these deposits were predominantly term deposits, which have relatively rigid costs, with personal term deposits accounting for nearly half of total customer deposits.
Simultaneously, the continued shrinkage of non-interest income weakened the retail segment's risk resilience. In 2025, the bank's net fee and commission income was only 598 million yuan, a sharp decline of 32.66% year-on-year, reducing its contribution to total operating income to 3.95%. A major factor was the halving of income from wealth management agency services, which decreased by 335 million yuan, a drop of 49.29%, exposing an over-reliance on a single business line.
**Capital Bottleneck: Core Capital Adequacy Ratio Hits Five-Year Low** If the weakness in retail banking is an internal structural issue, then the rapid consumption of capital is the most pressing external constraint currently facing Bank of Chongqing. In 2025, the bank's risk-weighted assets grew by 20.83% year-on-year, roughly in line with the growth rate of total assets. However, the pace of capital replenishment did not keep up. By the end of 2025, the bank's core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 8.53%, down 1.35 percentage points from the end of the previous year; the total capital adequacy ratio was 12.55%, down 1.91 percentage points. The core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio has hit a new low in nearly five years.
This speed of capital consumption stems from the high-intensity deployment of corporate loans, particularly government-related loans. While this type of business is a comfort zone for city commercial banks, it is inherently capital-intensive, involves significant upfront funding pressure, and rapid expansion rapidly depletes capital.
At the same time, the significant decline in gains/losses from fair value changes warrants attention. In 2025, the bank's net fair value change loss was 830 million yuan, compared to a gain of 108 million yuan in the same period last year, a staggering decrease of 871.95%. This indicates that the valuation of its financial assets, such as bond investments, faces substantial pressure in an environment of increasing interest rate volatility. Although management can smooth out fluctuations by adjusting allocation strategies in subsequent operations, this undoubtedly increases the unpredictability of profits.
Taking a longer-term view, Bank of Chongqing's return on assets has gradually declined from its 2021 peak. According to calculations from Corporate Early Warning, its average return on assets decreased from 0.82% in 2021 to 0.65% over the period 2021-2025.
How to enhance asset return efficiency while maintaining scale growth is a core issue management needs to address.
In summary, Bank of Chongqing's performance growth in 2025 is essentially the result of the dual effects of "scale-driven expansion" and "cost optimization." High growth in interest-earning assets provided the foundation for revenue, while liability cost control created room for profit. However, the contraction in non-interest income, losses in the retail business, and accelerated capital consumption collectively point to a core problem: while scale is expanding rapidly, the optimization of the profit structure and the improvement of capital efficiency have not kept pace.
For investors, it is necessary to recognize the strong short-term growth momentum while also being vigilant about the long-term risks of an imbalanced profit structure and intensifying capital constraints. Moving forward, whether Bank of Chongqing can genuinely revitalize its retail business to find a "second growth curve," while maintaining its corporate banking advantage and effectively replenishing capital, will determine how far it can travel on its new journey as a trillion-yuan bank.