Vice President of China Merchants Bank Peng Jiawen: It is expected that the net interest margin will continue to narrow in 2026, with the narrowing range likely to be better than the previous year.

(Source: Beijing Business Daily)

Beijing Business Daily News (Reporter Meng Fanxia, Zhou Yili) On March 30, at the announcement of China Merchants Bank’s 2025 annual performance, Deputy President and Chief Financial Officer, as well as Secretary to the Board of Directors, Peng Jiawen, provided an interpretation of the net interest margin (NIM) trend for 2025 and the outlook for 2026.

Peng Jiawen said that China Merchants Bank’s net interest margin in 2025 was 1.87%, down 11 basis points (BP) from the previous year. In terms of quarterly data, it was 1.91% in the first quarter, then fell to 1.86% and 1.83%, before rebounding to 1.86% in the fourth quarter. “There are two features in the operation of our net interest margin in 2025. The first feature is that the net interest margin is still declining, but the rate of decline is narrowing. The second feature is that during the year’s operation, there is a certain rebound in the fourth quarter.”

Peng Jiawen said that the ability to achieve a narrowing in the NIM decline and a rebound in the fourth quarter in 2025 benefited from China Merchants Bank’s efforts in asset-liability management. On the pricing front, the bank strictly implemented the requirements of self-regulatory mechanisms, promoted deposit interest rate reductions, while also tightly controlling loan pricing levels and continuously improving the pricing structure. On the structural front, it increased the proportion of credit assets with relatively higher returns; under pressure in retail loan demand, it promoted asset growth. In addition, in the fourth quarter, it repriced low-yield assets such as bills to optimize asset portfolio management. Multiple factors worked together to drive a certain rebound in net interest margin in the fourth quarter.

Regarding the net interest margin trend for 2026, Peng Jiawen believes that the overall judgment remains that it will continue to narrow, but the narrowing margin is expected to be better than in 2025. Looking ahead to 2026, the bank will further adopt effective asset-liability management measures and strive to achieve three major goals with full effort: first, further reduce the narrowing range of the net interest margin; second, under conditions where there is no major policy change in the external environment, strive to achieve NIM stabilization in the second half of the year; and third, continue to maintain the net interest margin level at a leading position in the market.

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