Hundreds of billions in patient capital accelerating entry, with the number of bank-affiliated AICs expanding to 9

Postal Savings Bank of China recently announced that its subsidiary, China Postal Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd. (referred to as “China Postal Investment”), has received approval to commence operations with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan. This newly established financial asset investment company (AIC) signed cooperation agreements with 14 units from fields such as integrated circuits, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing on the day of its launch, quickly entering the main battlefield of technological innovation.

With this, all six major state-owned banks have established AICs, increasing the total number of bank-affiliated AICs to 9, with a combined registered capital of 148.5 billion yuan. Since the first pilot program began in 2017, the flow of hundreds of billions of patient capital into hard technology and new quality productivity has accelerated, reshaping the service landscape of tech finance through bank-affiliated equity investment.

State-owned banks have fully “gathered” AIC licenses

Postal Savings Bank recently announced that it has received approval from the National Financial Regulatory Administration, allowing its subsidiary, China Postal Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd., to commence operations with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan, registered in Beijing. On the same day, China Postal Investment signed a framework agreement for business cooperation with 14 units in fields such as integrated circuits, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and industrial investment at its launch meeting focused on technological innovation.

Du Chunyan, Vice President and Secretary of the Board of Postal Savings Bank, has been appointed as the Chairman and legal representative of China Postal Investment. The bank clarified in the announcement that China Postal Investment will focus on serving the real economy, supporting technological innovation and private enterprises through market-oriented debt-to-equity swaps and equity investment pilot projects, thereby aiding the development of new quality productivity.

The establishment of China Postal Investment marks the complete gathering of AICs by the six major state-owned banks. Previously, the AICs under Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications had been operational for many years. Adding the AICs of Industrial Bank, China Merchants Bank, and China CITIC Bank, which will open by the end of 2025, the total number of bank-affiliated AICs has expanded to 9.

In terms of registered capital scale, the AICs under Industrial and Commercial Bank and China Construction Bank lead with 27 billion yuan each, followed closely by Agricultural Bank Investment with 20 billion yuan. The remaining six have registered capital between 10 billion yuan and 15 billion yuan, for a total registered capital of 148.5 billion yuan across the 9 institutions.

Regarding investment activity, Enterprise Warning data shows that Agricultural Bank Investment has invested in 264 companies, while Industrial Bank Investment has exceeded 230 companies, ranking at the forefront. As of the end of the first half of 2025, Industrial Bank Investment’s total assets approached 200 billion yuan, while Agricultural Bank Investment and CCB Investment exceeded 120 billion yuan. Among the five disclosed performance reports from state-owned bank AICs, in the first half of 2025, Industrial Bank Investment achieved a net profit of 2.709 billion yuan, while Agricultural Bank Investment and CCB Investment reported 1.936 billion yuan and 1.195 billion yuan, respectively.

Zhejiang Merchants Securities analyst Du Qinchuan pointed out that the current investment direction of bank AICs is highly focused on “early investment, small investment, long-term investment, and hard technology,” with major investments targeting semiconductor, new energy, and biomedicine sectors after 2024. This trend reflects the proactive transformation of traditional commercial banks under pressures such as narrowing net interest margins, insufficient credit demand, and declining ROE—emerging industries have characteristics of high growth, long cycles, and light assets, making traditional credit models difficult to effectively meet their financing needs, while AICs precisely fill the gaps in banks’ direct investment capabilities.

Investment-loan linkage still needs to resolve “structural mismatch” bottlenecks

As the number of bank-affiliated AICs continues to grow, state-owned banks and joint-stock banks are showing differentiated development paths, jointly constructing a multi-tiered technological finance service system.

From a business layout perspective, AICs from Postal Savings Bank, China CITIC Bank, Industrial Bank, and China Merchants Bank have all clearly stated in their approval announcements that they will focus on technological innovation and new quality productivity. However, differences in specific strategies are gradually emerging.

Zhejiang Merchants Securities’ research report analyzes that state-owned bank AICs often collaborate with local state-owned assets, with numerous cases of dual GP fund matrices and parent-child fund models, covering a wide range of investment areas, including both traditional and emerging industries. In contrast, joint-stock bank AICs, having been established later, primarily engage in direct equity investment and investment-loan linkage, focusing mainly on emerging fields such as new energy and new materials.

Pangu Think Tank senior researcher Jiang Han stated that state-owned bank AICs leverage their extensive network and deep government credit to effectively leverage local state-owned assets, forming scale effects that cover the entire industrial chain in their regions, reflecting a strategic thinking of “platformization and ecological integration.” Joint-stock bank AICs, on the other hand, capitalize on their flexible mechanisms and short decision-making chains, focusing more on direct equity investment and investment-loan linkage, quickly responding to market changes in high-growth sectors in a “special forces” manner.

According to Gao Zhengyang, a special researcher at Suzhou Bank, this development differentiation reflects a further segmentation of the functional positioning of bank-affiliated AICs. “State-owned bank AICs serve as stabilizers for financial services to the real economy, while joint-stock bank AICs fill the gaps in market-oriented capital supply, together constructing a multi-tiered financial service system that covers the transformation and upgrading of large enterprises and the innovation development of small and medium-sized enterprises.”

However, under the guidance of “early investment, small investment, long-term investment, and hard technology,” bank-affiliated AICs still face practical challenges. Jiang Han believes that the biggest bottleneck lies in the structural mismatch between the traditional credit culture of banks and the high-risk characteristics of equity investment. “The credit mindset pursues the safety of principal and interest and short-term returns, whereas technological innovation investments inherently carry high failure rates and long cycles.”

Gao Zhengyang further stated that the high uncertainty in the development of early-stage hard technology projects conflicts with the traditional low-risk preference of the banking system. Additionally, post-investment management capabilities need to be strengthened, and the assessment of the technological development path and industrial application prospects of hard technology enterprises requires deep industry accumulation and professional judgment capabilities. Furthermore, the exit channels for equity investments remain insufficiently smooth, exacerbating concerns about long-term capital investment.

Financial data also offers a glimpse into this. The disclosed data from five state-owned bank AICs shows that the average ROE for 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025 was 11.35%, 10.49%, and 7.15%, respectively, which has not significantly exceeded that of the parent banks. However, Du Qinchuan believes that if some invested projects successfully go public in the future, their returns will be quite considerable and are expected to enhance the overall ROE level of the banks, although this potential value has not yet been reflected in the current reports.

Gao Zhengyang suggests that to address the above challenges, it is essential first to improve the internal assessment and incentive mechanisms, establish a long-cycle assessment system, weaken short-term performance indicators, and set differentiated risk tolerances according to investment fields. Secondly, it is necessary to promote a shift from the traditional bank logic centered on collateral to an investment logic focused on enterprise growth, introducing specialized investment teams and reconstructing risk assessment models. Additionally, at the investment assessment level, collaboration with industrial capital, research institutes, and other ecological partners to establish technology assessment platforms can enhance the professional judgment capabilities for hard technology projects.

“Bank-affiliated AICs need to gradually break free from the constraints of traditional credit thinking, establish independent investment decision-making mechanisms, implement operational models such as pre-investment decision-making and parallel investment-loan linkage, and reconstruct risk assessment models from the perspective of equity investment, truly shifting from a traditional focus on financial statements and collateral assets to evaluating core technologies, management teams, and future growth potential,” Gao Zhengyang said.

With the establishment of China Postal Investment, the bank-affiliated AIC lineup is further strengthened. In March 2025, the notice issued by the Financial Regulatory Administration regarding “further expanding the pilot of financial asset investment companies’ equity investment” explicitly stated that “support will be provided for qualifying commercial banks to initiate the establishment of financial asset investment companies.” Under this policy dividend, hundreds of billions of patient capital are accelerating into the main channel of technological innovation, while how to accurately irrigate this “fresh water” into the depths of hard technology soil remains a topic that bank-affiliated AICs need to continue to explore.