The Paper | In Q1, 33 Banks on the Shanghai Board See Combined Revenue Rise Over 7%, Net Interest Margin Shows Stabilization Turning Point

Against the backdrop of heightened global market volatility and increasing attention on asset security, the banking sector on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) continues to release positive signals. On the one hand, annual "cash dividends" are being distributed successively, with high dividend yields building a solid investment "safety net", injecting confidence into the stability of Chinese assets.

Recently, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) were the first SSE-listed banks to deliver their 2025 annual cash dividends on their A-shares. The year-end dividends for 2025 on A-shares of the two banks reached RMB 45.538 billion and RMB 41.502 billion, respectively.

On the other hand, in Q1 2026, 33 SSE-listed banks achieved a total operating revenue of RMB 1.48 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 7.70%. Their total net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB 0.55 trillion, up 2.84% year-on-year. The average net interest margin (NIM) stood at 1.51%, an increase of 0.38 percentage points from the beginning of the year. The average non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was 1.13%, unchanged from the beginning of the year. The average provision coverage ratio was 271.82%, a decrease of 4.24 percentage points from the beginning of the year.

In Q1 2026, the net interest margin of the SSE banking sector reached a stage-by-stage stabilization turning point, breaking the conventional trend of quarter-on-quarter declines in Q1 over the past five years. The decline in NIM narrowed significantly, and the marginal stabilization signal is becoming increasingly clear.