Ping An Bank President Ji Guangheng: Industry Cannot Return to Rapid Expansion; H1 Revenue and Profit Rise

Ping An Bank announced at its 2026 interim results briefing that revenue and net profit both grew in the first half of 2026. President Ji Guangheng said the banking industry will find it difficult in the short term to return to the stage of rapid profit growth driven by scale expansion. Ping An Bank will not pursue a very large scale in the future, but will focus more on quality and per-unit output. He stressed that effective financing demand is currently insufficient, and banks cannot simply lower risk standards to achieve scale growth.

Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Xiang Youzhi noted that operating pressure will persist, but net interest income has shown positive signs, with the interest margin stabilising and recovering, and retail loans also showing signs of stabilisation. However, loan scale growth and asset pricing still face pressure. The bank will continue to strengthen refined asset-liability management, reducing low-efficiency assets on the asset side and increasing the proportion of effective assets, while on the liability side adhering to the principle of setting liabilities according to assets and focusing on marginal returns.

Using retail personal loans as an example, Ji Guangheng said Ping An Bank ranked first among joint-stock banks in incremental growth in the first half, but the actual increment was only several billion RMB. He said the bank's existing risks have been largely cleared, no new risks have accumulated, and it continues to strengthen management of interest-bearing costs, risk costs and capital. The bank will not pursue large scale in the future, but will pursue quality and per-unit output. Currently, its per-unit output indicators, including per-person revenue, per-person profit and per-branch output, rank among the top of joint-stock banks.

Ji also stressed that when effective credit demand is insufficient, the bank cannot extend loans with returns that are too low or even below cost. He believes the future will involve more strategic fine-tuning, careful refinement, and a gradual return to a sound path.