Listed banks rebounded strongly in 2021, despite challenges
Listed banks in China have maintained growth momentum and rebounded strongly in 2021, a new industry report said.
Banks' operating income has grown robustly and profits have recovered steadily, according to a study from EY that covered all 59 listed banks.
The report said that in 2021, total operating income of listed banks rose 7.75 percent year on year to 6.05 trillion yuan (US$89 billion), and total net profit was 1.99 trillion yuan.
Profit growth mainly benefited from rising operating income, continued growth of net fees and commissions and lower loss provisions, said Effie Xin, EY China Financial Services Managing Partner.
Last year, listed banks drove business transformation to operate more intermediary businesses including wealth management.
Also, the rise of consumer demand for wealth management led to rapid growth of agent and asset management businesses.
The non-performing loan ratio reversed its rising trend, and asset quality improved as banks enhanced credit risk control and increased the write-off and disposal of non-performing assets, EY said.
The listed banks continued to drive retail transformation, gaining more profit contribution from the retail business.
In 2021, retail income accounted for 42.3 percent of total operating income, higher than that of corporate banking and financial market businesses.
In response to competition and regulatory pressure, banks devoted themselves to improving granular management of customer-end, product end and risk control end, with some banks maintaining their leadership position in retail through financial supply-side reform by seizing new opportunities such as pension finance.
