Ping An Bank signals a strategic shift to showcasing underlying value as market favours technology and high-yield stocks, with a focus on efficiency and differentiated growth for 2026.
Ping An Bank used its interim briefing to argue that lenders need to prove their worth in a market that has been favouring technology shares and high-yield stocks. Zhou Qiang, the bank’s board secretary, told investors in Shenzhen that the A-share market had shown a pronounced split in the first half of 2026, with money moving between sectors and adding pressure to banks as a group.
Zhou said that the challenge for lenders was no longer simply to be seen as income stocks. Instead, he said, the market is looking for banks that can demonstrate underlying value. Ping An Bank, he added, has been trying to respond by improving efficiency and taking a more differentiated approach to growth.
That message builds on the bank’s recent operating results. In its full-year 2025 earnings call, Ping An Bank said it had cut forfeiting volumes by more than RMB130 billion, a sign of a cleaner asset structure, while its net interest margin for the year was 1.78%. The bank said those trends helped lay the groundwork for its 2026 growth plans. Separately, its first-quarter 2026 update showed revenue up 4.7% year on year to RMB35.28 billion and net profit rising 3.0% to RMB14.52 billion.
The bank has also pointed to improvement in lending, funding costs and capital strength. Full-year 2025 disclosures highlighted 3.5% growth in corporate loan balances, driven by technology and green finance, while general deposit costs fell to 1.65%, down 0.70 percentage points from a year earlier. Ping An Bank also reported a core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio of 9.36%, and its first-quarter 2026 filing showed the asset base rising to RMB6.03 trillion, with the non-performing loan ratio steady at 1.05%.
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