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at the end of august, the six state-owned banks disclosed their interim results for 2024. overall, the "report cards" released by the six banks have many highlights and their performance is relatively stable.in the first half of the year, the six major banks achieved a total revenue of 1.8 trillion yuan, with a total net profit attributable to their parent companies of 683.388 billion yuan, and all of them will implement interim dividends.。

in terms of the strength of supporting the real economy, the overall amount of credit provided by banks increased and the price decreased, giving full play to the role of the "main force" in serving the real economy. however, the net profit and operating income of the five banks all declined year-on-year, and the balance of non-performing loans continued to rise, and the net interest margin faced continued pressure.

at the performance conference, many state-owned bank managers mentioned the importance of stabilizing interest rate spreads and expressed their expectations for the second half of the year.actively promote refined management of net interest margin,strive tostable net interest margindetermination.

the profitability of the six major banks declined slightly

in the first half of this year, the six state-owned banks achieved a total net profit attributable to shareholders of 683.388 billion yuan, down 0.96% from 690.02 billion yuan in the same period last year. this means that the six banks made a total of 3.754 billion yuan a day in the first half of this year, showing a slight decline in profitability.

in,icbc ranks first among the six major banks in terms of revenue and net profit, 420.499 billion yuan and 171.296 billion yuan respectively; agricultural bank of china achieved a net profit of 136.5 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 2.0%, and operating income of 367.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.4%.it is the only state-owned bank to achieve both revenue and net profit growth。

in terms of net profit, the year-on-year declines of industrial and commercial bank of china, china construction bank, bank of china, postal savings bank of china and bank of communications were 1.9%, 1.80%, 1.24%, 1.51% and 1.63% respectively. in comparison, the net profit growth rates of the five banks in 2023 were 0.80%, 2.44%, 3.90%, 2.38%, 1.23% and 0.68% respectively.

looking back at the same period last year, the six major banks all delivered positive growth in net profit attributable to their parent companies. as for the reasons for the decrease in net profit attributable to their parent companies in the first half of this year, china construction bank mentioned in its semi-annual report that it was mainly due to factors such as the overall decline in lpr and market interest rates, which led to a decrease in net interest income. at the same time, affected by the fee reduction policies for insurance, funds, and custody, net income from fees and commissions also decreased year-on-year.

increasing support for the real economy has become a bright spot

in the first half of this year, major banks focused on key areas and weak links and made precise efforts. the reporter sorted out the annual reports of various banks and noticed that the loan growth rate in multiple key areas of major banks generally increased, and increasing support for the real economy became a highlight of the semi-annual report.

according to the icbc annual report, the bank continued to increase its supply of funds to the real economy. in the first half of the year, rmb loans of domestic branches increased by 1.74 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.1%. the investment and financing structure is more compatible with the real economy. the bank's loans to manufacturing increased by 13%, loans to strategic emerging industries increased by 14.7%, green loans increased by 13.7%, and inclusive loans increased by 21.5%, all of which were higher than the average growth rate of various loans.

"serve as the main force in serving the real economy and help the economy recover and improve." according to the bank of china's semi-annual report, in the first half of the year, new rmb loans in the country increased by 1.21 trillion yuan, achieving total growth and structural optimization. the balance of medium- and long-term loans in the manufacturing industry increased by 13.82% from the end of last year, the balance of loans to strategic emerging industries increased by 15.38%, and the balance of agricultural loans reached 2.28 trillion yuan.

since the first half of this year, with the transformation of the effects of various national policies to support the stable development of real estate, the external financing environment of real estate companies has improved. it is worth noting that many banks specifically mentioned the real estate financial services at the semi-annual performance release conference.

yin jiuyong, deputy president of bank of communications, introduced that the bank's urban real estate financing coordination mechanism white list projects have connected with more than 300 households, with actual demand exceeding 100 billion yuan, of which more than 200 projects have been implemented.

"from the perspective of asset quality, as of the end of june, the non-performing rate of our real estate loans was the same as at the beginning of the year, and far lower than last year's peak." liu hong, deputy president of the agricultural bank of china, said that the next step will be to meet the reasonable financing needs of real estate companies, fully assist in ensuring the delivery of houses, and improve the service quality and efficiency of the real estate financing coordination mechanism.

actively strengthen net interest margin management

affected by factors such as the reduction of the loan market benchmark rate (lpr) and the adjustment of the interest rate of existing mortgage loans, the net interest margin of the six state-owned banks is facing continuous pressure. except for bank of communications, the net interest margin of the other five banks has dropped significantly compared with the same period last year.

net interest margin refers to the ratio of net interest income to the average balance of interest-earning assets. it is used to measure the profitability of a bank's interest-earning assets, that is, the ability to make money. it is one of the core efficiency indicators of a bank. the continuously declining net interest margin means that the profits that banks obtain from traditional deposit and loan businesses are continuously decreasing. data released by the state administration of financial supervision and administration show that in the first half of 2024, the net interest margin of commercial banks was 1.54%. although it is the same as the first quarter, it is 20 basis points lower than 1.74% in the same period last year.

against the backdrop of a downward trend in deposit and lending rates, future changes in the net interest margins of major banks in various countries have attracted much attention from the outside world.

agricultural bank of china president wang zhiheng said at the performance conference that the overall market interest rate is down, and the banking industry needs to reasonably give benefits to the market, which has led to an overall narrowing of the net interest margin. he also said that compared with the low point in the first quarter, the net interest margin has stabilized and rebounded. agricultural bank of china will strive to achieve a reasonable growth in credit scale and continuous optimization of structure and quality. it is expected that the net interest margin will remain stable in the second half of the year, and efforts will be made to achieve further marginal improvements.

"from a full-year perspective, the bank of communications' goal is to maintain a basically stable net interest margin and strive for marginal improvement," said zhou wanfu, vice president of the bank of communications. the bank will actively seize favorable factors in economic development and market operation to achieve the goal of stabilizing and improving interest margins. for example, the bank will strengthen the management and control of high-cost deposits such as structured deposits, long-term deposits, large-denomination certificates of deposit and agreement deposits, and reasonably control their total amount, term and pricing.

liu jin, deputy president of bank of china, said that looking ahead to the next stage, the bank will continue to leverage the unique advantages of its business structure and institutional layout to better cope with the pressure of downward net interest margin and more proactively strengthen net interest margin management.

specifically, in terms of rmb business, bank of china will continue to optimize its asset structure, strengthen support for key areas such as new quality productivity, increase the issuance of personal housing and consumer loans, strictly control the proportion of high-cost deposits, and strengthen the refined management of liabilities; in terms of foreign currency business, it will accelerate the layout of bond investment, orderly promote the growth of foreign currency bond investment, accelerate the transformation of light capital overseas, and at the same time closely monitor the monetary policy trends of major economies and make forward-looking responses.

image source: ic photo

source: beijing daily client

reporter: pan fuda