Half-year results rise across China's largest state-owned lenders

China’s six largest state-owned banks recorded their first simultaneous rise in first-half revenue and net profit since 2022, according to interim results released last week, as margins that had been under pressure for two years showed tentative signs of stabilising.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC), Bank of Communications (Bocom) and Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) together generated more than 2 trillion yuan (US$297 billion) in operating income for the first half.

Combined net profit attributable to shareholders amounted to about 712.6 billion yuan. Revenue grew between 4 and 11 per cent across the six lenders, while net profit rose 4 to 6 per cent – the first time since 2022 that all six registered positive growth on both counts at the same time.

The improvement was underpinned by a tentative rebound in net interest margin (NIM) – the spread between what banks earn on loans and pay on deposits – after two years of steady compression that dragged the industry average down to a record low of nearly 1.4 per cent in the first quarter.

CCB led the turn, posting a half-year NIM of 1.37 per cent – up 0.03 percentage points from full-year 2025 and 0.01 percentage points from the first quarter.