Brokerage firms' annual reports reflect industry transformation and development trends; strengthening core capabilities has become a consensus.

As of 20:00 on March 27, eight A-share listed securities firms have released their 2025 annual reports, and their net profits have continued to show an upward growth trend. In 2026—the opening year of the “15th Five-Year Plan”—the securities industry has also entered a new stage of high-quality development. How securities firms can accurately gauge industry development trends and further strengthen their differentiated competitiveness has become a subject worthy of investors’ attention in addition to financial data.

A reporter from China Securities Journal found that many securities firms, in their annual reports, have all emphasized the positive role of “improving the market mechanisms for long-term capital and long-term investment” in driving the development of the capital market and the securities industry. Accelerating international development and deepening digital and data-intelligent transformation have become common ground among many firms. A series of new opportunities at present provides a better environment for securities companies to leverage their professional capabilities. Whether for leading firms or niche-focused firms, they need to improve the quality and efficiency of operations and continuously strengthen core capability building.

Three Key Words Sketch Industry Transformation Trends

“As the capital market moves into a high-quality development stage centered on functional roles, securities firms need to break away from homogeneous expansion, and return to the fundamentals of serving the real economy and residents’ wealth management. Under the policy guidance of ‘focusing on main business, improving governance, and developing in a differentiated way,’ the industry will gradually form a new landscape led by multiple comprehensive institutions.” In its 2025 annual report disclosed recently, CITIC Securities analyzed the industry’s competitive landscape and believes that leading securities firms should seize the opportunity period to build first-class investment banks, by strengthening domestic integrated service capabilities, deepening internationalization, and creating a new growth curve.

As 2025 annual reports are released one after another, A-share listed securities firms, while presenting their “performance track records” from the past year, have also gradually rolled out their outlooks on the industry’s competitive landscape and future development. The reporter’s review shows that, regarding capital market reform, “improving the market mechanisms for long-term capital and long-term investment” has become a high-frequency phrase in the 2025 annual reports of multiple securities firms, and it has also become an important driver for further high-quality development of the securities industry. As for the industry’s own trend of change, accelerating international development and deepening digital and data-intelligent transformation have become common consensus among many securities firms.

Huaan Securities judges that, as the institutional environment for “long-term capital and long-term investment” keeps improving, market appeal, competitiveness, and internal stability are improving in tandem, and the underlying logic of high-quality development of the capital market is becoming more solid. As a major “service provider” for direct financing, an important “gatekeeper” of the capital market, and a professional “manager” of social wealth, the securities industry will play an irreplaceable role in serving the real economy and the development of new quality productive forces, better supporting investors in optimizing the allocation of residents’ assets, accelerating the building of a strong financial country, and promoting high-level institutional opening up, among other areas. It is facing unprecedented development opportunities.

Orient Securities believes that the internationalization process for securities firms is moving from single-point breakthroughs to a historical stage of building international capabilities across the entire value chain. The three major business segments—cross-border financing, wealth management, and asset management—will become key areas for securities firms to focus on. In the future, as cross-border service capabilities and international competitiveness improve, international business will become a crucial support for domestic companies to “go global” and for overseas capital to “come in,” as well as a new engine for growth in securities firms’ performance. International development will enter a “fast track.”

CITIC Jian投 believes that cutting-edge technologies such as AI are accelerating into the ecosystem of business and services, strongly driving the securities industry’s digital and data-intelligent transformation. Deepening competitive industry dynamics, increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, fluctuations in the external macro environment, and the accelerated penetration of financial technology are pushing the industry to evolve toward a more professional, more standardized, and more digital and data-intelligent direction. This requires companies to continuously enhance their integrated financial service capabilities, improve risk compliance management, and ensure the effectiveness of their digital transformation, in order to build a sustained competitive advantage for the future.

Strengthen Core Capabilities to Pursue Differentiated Development

Based on the operating conditions of the eight listed securities firms that have disclosed their 2025 annual reports so far, both their 2025 operating revenue and net profits have achieved year-on-year growth. In terms of revenue scale, CITIC Securities ranks first with operating revenue of 74.854 billion yuan and net profit of 30.076 billion yuan, and it is also currently the only listed securities firm with net profit exceeding 30 billion yuan. In terms of revenue growth rate, Orient Securities’ 2025 net profit increased 68.16% year on year, achieving net profit of 5.634 billion yuan; Hongta Securities’ 2025 net profit growth rate is also outstanding, with a year-on-year increase of 58.84%, achieving net profit of 1.214 billion yuan.

In 2026, the “15th Five-Year Plan” will begin, and the securities industry is also entering a new stage of high-quality development. How to seize the opportunity, leverage one’s own operational advantages, and achieve continued growth in performance are also topics multiple securities firms have addressed in their 2025 annual reports.

As an industry leader, CITIC Securities believes that under the regulatory approach of supporting the strong and limiting the weak, constraints on capital for high-quality securities firms may be relaxed to an appropriate degree. With new opportunities such as faster equity financing, more long- and medium-term funds entering the market, institutional opening up of the capital market, high-quality development of public funds, and the steady development of customer-driven derivatives, a better environment will be created for securities companies to play their professional strengths. In 2026, the company will effectively improve the quality and efficiency of operations, enhance lean management, implement the requirements for the financial “strong core” initiative in depth, continuously strengthen core functions and improve core competitiveness, and advance its internationalization strategy to deepen and solidify—making Hong Kong business bigger and stronger. It will actively broaden the development of a global network and enrich the diversity of its overseas-market business offerings.

Regarding the business layout of niche-focused securities firms, Hongta Securities said that in 2026 it will strengthen competitive advantages in subdivided areas and further strengthen financial function building. In terms of specific initiatives, the company will deepen asset-liability management and promote a non-directional transformation of proprietary investments. For example, it will improve management mechanisms for the non-directional transformation of proprietary investments, such as FTP and personnel performance evaluation. Within the broad framework of asset allocation, it will promote the continuous improvement of capacity for core strategies. In strengthening the endogenous profit engines of subsidiaries, the company will further consolidate the results of subsidiary management building, create its own differentiated and specialized development advantages, continuously enhance its capability for specialized services, and expand the scale of specialized products.