Chinese City and Rural Banks Report First-Half 2026 Results as Net Interest Margins Stabilize

Listed city commercial banks, rural commercial banks and other small and medium-sized banks recently held concentrated briefings on their first-half 2026 results. Management responded to market concerns including net interest margins, asset quality, credit extension, capital replenishment and dividend arrangements. Some small and medium-sized banks discussed adjustments to their asset and liability structures and specialized operations at the briefings.

In the first half of 2026, net interest margins at several listed city and rural commercial banks stabilized or rebounded. Jiangyin Bank's net interest margin was 1.57%, up 3 basis points from the first quarter; Qingdao Bank's was 1.63%, flat from the first quarter. Management at several banks noted at the briefings that, with asset yields under overall downward pressure, reducing funding-side costs became an important factor supporting the stabilization and recovery of net interest margins. Management at Guiyang Bank said that in the first half of 2026 the bank continued to improve the quality and efficiency of credit extension on the asset side, supporting growth in interest income; on the liability side it pushed interest-bearing costs down further, effectively offsetting pressure from declining asset yields, with the decline in interest-bearing liability costs the core factor in the margin improvement. Management at Lanzhou Bank responded that growth in the bank's net interest income in the first half of 2026 mainly benefited from seizing the opportunity of deposit repricing, carrying out three rounds of differentiated pricing adjustments. As deposits matured and repriced, cost pressure on the liability side continued to ease.

Hangzhou Bank disclosed at its results briefing that its net interest margin stabilized and rebounded in the first half of 2026, while a certain gap remained between the yield on newly issued loans and the yield on existing loans.

Management at Jiangyin Bank noted that in the first half of 2026 the bank closely followed local industry development needs and built a tiered and categorized service system for the real economy, with growth in technology finance, green finance and supply chain finance reaching 11.48%, 27.01% and 47.32% respectively. Qilu Bank established county-level finance as a core business segment and the strategic main front for deepening its regional presence. As of the end of June 2026, the bank's county-level loan balance was RMB 127.8 billion, up 12.93% from the end of 2025.