The securities industry’s 2025 report card looks impressive: seven firms have entered the "Double Billion Club," with a current contrast of "employee salary increases and executive decreases."

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Jiemian News Reporter | Chen Jing

In 2025, domestic capital market activity reached a historic peak, with the Shanghai Composite Index achieving double-digit gains for the year, daily average trading volume in the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets hitting record highs, and industry tailwinds delivering a truly “historic” performance report from the domestic securities industry.

According to the latest data from the China Securities Industry Association, 150 securities firms achieved operating revenue of 219.44B yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 19.95%; net profit reached 148.3k yuan, up 31.2%, with net profit growth significantly outpacing revenue growth, highlighting the industry’s effective cost control and business structure optimization.

By the end of 2025, the total assets of the 150 brokerages reached 14.83 trillion yuan, net assets were 3.34 trillion yuan, net capital was 2.44 trillion yuan, client transaction settlement funds (including credit trading funds) totaled 3.24 trillion yuan, and entrusted management funds principal amounted to 9.53 trillion yuan.

Segmented business sectors showed a “multi-point bloom, slight differentiation” pattern. Among them, net income from agency securities trading (including trading unit seat leasing) was 33.4k yuan, up 42.2%; net income from investment consulting was 24.4k yuan, up 41.4%; financial advisory net income was 32.4k yuan; net interest income was 95.3k yuan, up 29.07%; securities underwriting and sponsorship net income was 163.8B yuan, up 13.7%; only asset management net income slightly declined, down 0.25% to 7.69B yuan.

Notably, securities investment income (including fair value changes) reached 5.78B yuan, a modest increase of 6.5% year-on-year, but accounting for as much as 34.2% of industry revenue, serving as the core driver behind the industry’s sharp surge in net profit.

Looking at listed brokerages, industry differentiation has further intensified. According to Choice Financial Terminal data, as of March 31, all 26 listed brokerages and holding companies that disclosed 2025 performance achieved profitability, with both revenue and net profit increasing year-on-year. Cumulative operating revenue was 454.71 billion yuan, up 31.93%; total net profit attributable to parent was 64.69B yuan, up 44.61%, significantly outpacing the overall industry growth.

Leading brokerages continue to demonstrate their competitive advantages. CITIC Securities (600030.SH) led with 33.71B yuan in revenue and 23.89B yuan in net profit attributable to parent, with the latter surpassing 30 billion yuan for the first time, further consolidating core business competitiveness; Guotai Haitong (601211.SH) followed closely, with revenue of 631.07 billion yuan and net profit of 185.06B yuan. These two firms are the only entities in the industry to surpass 600 billion yuan in revenue and 20 billion yuan in net profit.

Meanwhile, the “Double Billion Club” in the industry expanded, with seven firms simultaneously achieving over 100 billion yuan in both revenue and net profit attributable to parent, an increase of two from 2024. These include GF Securities (000776.SZ), Eastmoney (300059.SZ), along with CITIC Securities, Guotai Haitong, Huatai Securities (601688.SH), China Galaxy (601881.SH), and CITIC Securities, ranking at the forefront.

Additionally, China International Capital Corporation (601995.SH), Shenwan Hongyuan (000166.SZ), and CITIC Construction Investment (601066.SH) all posted net profits attributable to parent exceeding 9 billion yuan, becoming the core reserves of the “Double Billion Club,” further reinforcing the concentration of industry top-tier firms.

Jiemian News, combined with Eastmoney Choice data, found that as industry performance continues to recover, securities firm employees’ compensation has experienced a long-awaited comprehensive rebound. Excluding data distortions caused by mergers, such as Guotai Haitong and Guolian Minsheng (601456.SH), among 24 listed brokerages and securities concept stocks that disclosed 2025 annual reports, 21 saw their per-employee average salary increase year-on-year, with growth mainly in the 5% to 20% range, confirming the market-driven linkage between industry prosperity and employee compensation levels.

While salary increases are differentiated, there are significant disparities among different institutions. Huatai Securities (600909.SH) became the “leader” in this round of salary growth, with per-employee average salary rising by 30.96%; Industrial Securities (601377.SH), China International Capital Corporation, and Zhongyuan Securities (601375.SH) followed with increases of 26.35%, 24.4%, and 20.89%, respectively.

Even among the top three industry leaders, salaries are steadily rising. CITIC Securities’ per-employee salary increased from 779.8k yuan in 2024 to 812.8k yuan in 2025, a 4.23% growth; Huatai Securities’ salary rose from 639.6k yuan to 669.1k yuan, up 4.61%.

Guotai Haitong Securities’ per-employee salary, calculated based on (Guotai Junan’s total employees at the end of 2024 + Haitong Securities’ mid-2024 total employees) ÷ 2, was approximately 709.8k yuan in 2025, a slight increase of 0.02% year-on-year.

A person familiar with Guolian Minsheng revealed that, based on simulated merger data comparison, the company’s per-employee salary (including benefits) reached 634.2k yuan in 2025, a 21.2% increase; excluding benefits, it was 513.7k yuan, up 24% year-on-year.

Reviewing 2021 to 2024, influenced by regulatory requirements for standardized compensation systems in financial institutions, as well as internal performance assessment mechanisms and deferred compensation adjustments, some brokerages saw their per-employee salaries decline for two to three consecutive years, with the largest cut reaching up to 40%.

“Employee salary recovery is a delayed reflection of the industry’s recovery in prosperity, which helps stabilize talent pipelines, alleviates the pressure of key personnel turnover, and leaves room for industry to attract top talent. The overall restrained rebound also reflects prudent and rational industry salary management,” said Tian Lihui, a finance professor at Nankai University, in an interview with Jiemian News.

Contrasting sharply with the warmth in ordinary employees’ salaries is the continued contraction of senior management compensation, showing a “rising employees, falling executives” differentiation trend. According to relevant announcements and Choice Financial Terminal data, among 26 institutions that disclosed 2025 performance, total executive compensation was about 372 million yuan, down 8.2% year-on-year, with 22 firms experiencing declines, 10 of which fell more than 20%.

Specifically, Shenwan Hongyuan saw the largest decrease at 37.41%, while China Galaxy and Huatai Securities declined by 30.76% and 29.21%, respectively.

Regarding this clear salary disparity, industry insiders told Jiemian News that it mainly results from the combined effects of three core driving factors: first, policy compliance constraints, especially for securities firms with state-owned background, where executive compensation is subject to stricter regulatory guidance and tighter controls; second, the continuous improvement of deferred compensation mechanisms, as most brokerages now implement 3-5 year deferred payout rules, meaning the actual compensation paid in 2025 corresponds to performance during the lows of 2022-2024, directly causing a decline in current executive pay; third, the adjustment of risk and compensation linkage, with regulators explicitly requiring that executive pay be deeply tied to compliance, risk control, and long-term performance, so that short-term profit growth does not directly translate into immediate cash compensation for executives.

“This indicates that the securities firms’ compensation system is entering a long-term adjustment cycle, and the differentiation between executive and employee pay may become the norm,” the insider added.

Tian Lihui further analyzed for Jiemian News that the divergence between executive and employee pay trends reflects a profound shift in compensation management under regulatory guidance—“limit high, expand medium, raise low” has become a consensus in the industry. “This adjustment is not just cyclical fluctuation but a sign that the industry’s compensation system is entering a long-term structural adjustment. In the future, executive pay will rely more on long-term equity incentives, and employee compensation will become more elastic with business cycles.”