Live Performance Review | Spread Management, Retail Development, Asset Quality... SPDB Bank Management Responds to These Hot Topics

On March 31, the management team of Pudong Development Bank (SH600000, share price 10.24 yuan, market cap 341.1 billion yuan) responded to hot-button issues such as the net interest margin, loan growth, and smart-and-digital transformation at its 2025 annual performance briefing.

Facing challenges such as narrowing industry net interest margins, Pudong Development Bank achieved marginal improvements in multiple key indicators through structural optimization, data-and-intelligence-driven initiatives, and refined risk management.

At the end of 2025, Pudong Development Bank’s total assets exceeded 10 trillion yuan, up 6.55% from the end of the previous year. In the past year of 2025, the bank achieved operating revenue of 100k yuan, up 1.88%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 173.96B yuan, up 10.52%, sustaining double-digit growth for two consecutive years.

Staged achievements in net interest margin management

Pudong Development Bank’s net interest margin in 2025 was 1.42%, unchanged from 2024. At the performance briefing, Pudong Development Bank President Xie Wei said that the bank has caught up with the industry’s net interest margin level and marginally outperformed the industry, benefiting from its continuous optimization of industry structure, regional structure, customer structure, and product structure. Through proactive asset-liability management, it has established a top-down net interest margin management system.

On the asset side, Pudong Development Bank implemented strategies focused on improving quality and efficiency and dynamically fine-tuning its approach. It increased business support and resource assurance for key tracks, key regions, key industries, and key products, reduced low-efficiency assets such as bills, raised the proportion of mid-to-high yield assets, and improved the bank’s overall asset earning level.

On the liability side, the bank adhered to deposits led by the bank itself and pursued refined management, driving a favorable situation in which overall liabilities increased in volume, declined in cost, and improved in quality.

At the same time, in terms of full-statement asset-liability management, it continued to optimize institutions and mechanisms and improve capital management efficiency.

Xie Wei acknowledged, “Although net interest margin management achieved staged results in 2025, objectively speaking, compared with leading peers, our net interest margin absolute value still remains at a relatively not ideal level.”

He said the bank will take multiple measures in the next step, aiming for better net interest margin performance. First, it will focus on strategic value and push for in-depth fine-tuning of the asset-liability structure. Second, it will rely on smart-and-digital platforms to drive deeper development across the five major tracks. Third, it will strengthen a balanced approach to both quantity and pricing to enhance its ability in refined pricing management. Fourth, it will solidify liability quality and build an integrated settlement ecosystem for corporate banking, retail banking, and interbank business, expanding sources of low-cost, highly stable liabilities.

Personal asset management scale reaches 4.66 trillion yuan

“With the premise that things stabilized in 2024, in 2025 Pudong Development Bank’s retail business achieved sustained positive development.” Zhang Jian, deputy president of Pudong Development Bank, said at the performance briefing.

As introduced, in 2025 Pudong Development Bank’s personal asset management scale (including market value) reached 4.66 trillion yuan, up 20% that year. Savings deposits were 1.71 trillion yuan, up 10%.

In recent years, the overall retail credit market has faced pressure. When discussing this topic, Zhang Jian provided relevant data for Pudong Development Bank: in 2025, the bank’s retail loans (excluding operating loans) grew by 45 billion yuan, up 3.05%. The incremental amount and growth rate ranked among the top in joint-stock banks. Among them, the total increase in mortgage and consumer loans was 28.2 billion yuan.

Zhang Jian noted that retail banking will still face certain pressure in 2026, but opportunities also exist. The bank will focus on building five “cards”: large treasury management, large services, large consumption, large ecosystem, and smart agents.

Non-performing loan ratio at the lowest level in nearly 11 years

At the end of 2025, Pudong Development Bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 1.26%, down 0.10 percentage points from the end of the previous year, the lowest level in nearly 11 years. Its risk coverage capability continued to improve, with the provision coverage ratio at 200.72%, up 13.76 percentage points from the end of the previous year, the best level in nearly 10 years.

At the performance briefing, Cui Bingwen, deputy president of Pudong Development Bank, explained some measures behind the improvement in the bank’s asset quality.

First is customer entry work, namely the whitelist mechanism. Since the bank implemented it across the entire firm last year, the total approved credit amount was about 950 billion yuan, and recently it has further improved the whitelist mechanism.

Second is the construction of a risk monitoring system. At the head office level, the bank established an enterprise-level risk monitoring system; at the level of each track and each major business department, it also set up department-level risk monitoring systems. They work together with information sharing.

Third is the model management architecture. In the digital era, online business and inclusive finance have developed extensively, so there needs to be an accurate model and a model management architecture to control risk.

Fourth is a combination mechanism of speed adjustment and mediation. In the past, retail credit—especially retail mortgage business—was a “keystone” business for Pudong Development Bank. But in recent years, under the influence of multiple factors, some customers’ repayment pressure has increased. For customers who are temporarily unable to perform but not unwilling to honor their credit, the bank needs to help them get through the economic cycle. Currently, Pudong Development Bank has established a four-tier mediation mechanism within the bank.

(Intern Cheng Xuebing also contributed to this article)

Daily Economic News