Weathering Three Years of Reform and Transformation Pains: What's Behind Ping An Bank's Return to Growth?

“2025 will be a challenging year for Ping An Bank, but also a year to lay a more solid foundation for future development.” At the 2025 annual performance release conference, Ping An Bank Party Secretary and President Ji Guangheng summarized: “Our big goal for 2026 is to return to growth, to give the market confidence—‘We are back.’”

Performance Release Conference Scene

For Ji Guangheng, this statement requires great courage and foresight. In 2025, due to low market interest rates, continued preferential policies for the real economy, and proactive adjustments to business structure, Ping An Bank’s revenue and profits declined year-on-year. The full-year revenue reached 131.442 billion yuan, down 10.4% year-on-year; net profit was 42.633 billion yuan, down 4.2%. Notably, the bank significantly advanced cost reduction and efficiency improvement last year, with business and management expenses totaling 38.196 billion yuan, a decrease of 5.9% year-on-year. Total assets amounted to 59.2577 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.7% from the previous year.

From key indicators such as asset quality, at the end of 2025, the non-performing loan ratio was 1.05%, down 0.01 percentage points from the end of the previous year; the reserve coverage ratio was 220.88%, decreasing about 30 basis points. Additionally, as of the end of 2025, the net interest margin was 1.78%, down 9 basis points from the end of 2024, with the decline narrowing.

Ji Guangheng

For Ji Guangheng, 2025 is the year Ping An Bank under his leadership is building a bottom, and also the night before dawn. Observers note that for a long period, the banking industry was characterized by being a pro-cyclical, high-dividend sector. Before 2022, Ping An Bank was one of the fastest-growing joint-stock banks. According to incomplete statistics, from 2013 to 2022, Ping An Bank’s revenue grew by 245%, and net profit by 199%, far surpassing many leading joint-stock banks.

However, in recent years, under the intertwined and competitive macroeconomic environment of technology and dividends, the banking industry’s performance has generally slowed, and each bank is forced to reassess its strategic positioning—in this new normal of emphasizing efficiency over scale, only banks with distinctive features and core capabilities can stand out in the new valuation differentiation.

Three-year internal reform,

Doing the ‘difficult but correct’ things

In June 2023, Ji Guangheng was appointed as President of Ping An Bank. As a veteran banker with experience across state-owned large banks, joint-stock banks, and rural commercial banks, he immediately launched a bold strategic reform, focusing inward to strengthen internal capabilities, involving restructuring, business segment adjustments, and personnel changes, including reducing retail non-performing loans and shifting toward increased corporate banking investment; he also abolished the decade-old business department system, returning branches to the main operational battlefield, strengthening branch and headquarter capabilities.

Observers note that over the past two years, Ping An Bank has endured the pain of strategic transformation, with overall performance data remaining under pressure. Ji Guangheng has repeatedly stated that the bank must do the ‘difficult but correct’ things.

“2025 is the third year since our new team and leadership were formed. The entire reform has now entered the ‘deep water zone,’ and I personally believe we have completed over 70%,” Ji Guangheng admitted. He hopes that during this process, the bank can resolve historical issues and generate new momentum. In 2026, the goal is to fully achieve “return to growth.”

“The hardest times are behind us,”

Analyzing Ji Guangheng’s four ‘cards’

What gives confidence that revenue and net profit indicators will turn positive again? Ji Guangheng elaborated at today’s performance briefing. He believes that, based on the main indicators in 2025, although revenue and profit still declined, efficiency metrics have gradually improved. From the performance in the first two months of this year, key operational indicators are showing a positive trend.

Taking retail as an example, he believes “retail business has basically bottomed out and the dawn is beginning to appear.” According to annual report data, last year, Ping An Bank’s personal loan balance still shrank, totaling 1.73 trillion yuan, down 2.3% from the end of the previous year. However, Ji Guangheng stated that since the strategic reform, the bank has focused on strengthening its own channels, deepening customer segmentation, enriching product offerings, and increasing the proportion of high-quality business. The retail credit scale stopped declining since the second half of last year, credit card balances stabilized, mortgage and auto financing balances increased compared to the end of last year, with Orange e-loan and Orange business loan balances surpassing 30 billion yuan, and retail asset quality has significantly improved.

Corporate banking is another “card.” He believes that corporate business has strongly supported the bank’s profit performance amid the retail transformation. By deepening the strategy of “focusing on industry, customers, and products,” improving industry, risk, and customer management mechanisms, optimizing credit resource allocation, and leveraging core advantages such as supply chain finance, cash management, and cross-border services, the bank is accelerating breakthroughs in segmented industries; meanwhile, it is agilely adjusting interbank transaction strategies, flexibly managing account operations, and enhancing collaborative efficiency to improve comprehensive customer management and profitability.

The third source of confidence is strengthening asset quality management and effective control. Ji Guangheng noted that last year, the bank reconstructed its risk management system, enhanced risk management independence, and cleared high-risk retail assets. The quality of corporate assets remains good, with continued efforts to recover non-performing loans, significantly reducing credit risk costs, and upgrading the risk management collaboration mechanism.

The final confidence comes from refined management and quality improvement. Ji Guangheng said Ping An Bank continues to optimize operating costs, support strategic and key business investments, reduce fixed and daily operational expenses, improve branch accounting and investment awareness, and adjust branch layouts, promoting models like “small one-floor, large two-floor.” Additionally, talent development is prioritized, with rotation of senior staff between head office and branches, placing the right talent in roles where they can maximize value, and enhancing professional and managerial capabilities. In technology, the bank is deepening AI applications across multiple scenarios, enriching retail customer marketing tools, and building a digital product matrix for corporate clients, upgrading investment advisory, risk control, and service capabilities.

“After two and a half years of strategic transformation, Ping An Bank has basically bottomed out in performance, and the hardest times are behind us,” he emphasized. “Starting from 2026, we will firmly believe and act on the idea of returning to growth from top to bottom.”

Interest rate management and cost reduction and efficiency—

Will they become key advantages?

South Capital Society reporters also noted that at today’s performance briefing, the bank highlighted several ‘trump cards,’ with one of the most frequently mentioned being the interest rate paid. In 2025, Ping An Bank’s average interest-bearing liabilities rate was 1.67%, down 47 basis points from 2024. The average interest rate on deposits was 1.65%, down 42 basis points year-on-year, leading among peers. The significant reduction in liability costs means the bank has effectively controlled its debt costs, contributing to narrowing or stabilizing net interest margins. Vice President and CFO Xiang Youzhi stated that the bank’s interest expense has been gradually decreasing since early last year, with a one-time adjustment this year, and expects this to contribute more to net interest margin and revenue.

Cost reduction and efficiency improvement has also become a frequently mentioned term, serving as an important lever for this year’s revenue performance. Xiang Youzhi explained that cost reduction and efficiency are not simply about cutting expenses and wages but involve many processes, systems, and technologies—such as reducing office space without affecting customer experience, which is a complex systemic project. AI+ has become a key tool for the bank’s cost management. For example, the retail AI-generated marketing platform produces many creative contents automatically, saving roughly 60 million yuan last year. He summarized that, based on past experience, cost control is a three-dimensional project with room for further optimization, but investments in new products and system updates are still necessary.

Multiple stress tests remain to be validated

However, observers note that Ping An Bank still faces pressure tests. Although the retail sector has stabilized after adjustments, returning to a healthy growth trajectory will take time, especially given the current sluggish environment for retail credit and credit card consumption. While corporate business has seen double-digit growth in enterprise accounts, Ping An Bank’s corporate foundation remains relatively weak, and the bank has been rebuilding its corporate system in recent years, which still needs strengthening. Additionally, the bank must address unbalanced development. Ji Guangheng said that the top six banks account for about 60% of revenue, and the mid-tier banks need time to catch up. In the ongoing technological race among banks, despite significant investments in AI and big data, talent reserves are also crucial, and the bank needs to cultivate distinctive fintech brands.

“We will use the results of 2026’s operations to prove to the market that Ping An Bank’s strategic determination remains unchanged, its operational resilience and business features are improving, and its long-term value is worth期待,” said Secretary of the Board Zhou Qiang.

Will interest rate management and cost efficiency become key competitive advantages?

For senior executives like Ji Guangheng, the goal of ‘returning to growth’ is a heavy but promising mission.

Written by: South Capital Society Reporter Lu Liang