"Five Major Articles": How Commercial Banks Can Continue Moving Forward?

Vin|Xiaofang

Source|Bovng Finance

When the country’s “five major financial articles” move from policy deployment into day-to-day bank operations, what the industry is watching is not only which segment grows faster—but who can embed them into their own model innovation, credit-granting approval process, product offering, channel reach, and distinctive operations.

On March 2, 2025, the General Office of the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Financial “Five Major Articles.” On March 6, 2025, Xinhua News Agency reported that the Guiding Opinions proposes policy measures to advance the financial “five major articles” from three aspects: first, enhancing the service capacity and support intensity of financial institutions; second, strengthening the service functions of financial markets and infrastructure; and third, improving policy guidance and supporting measures. In short, the question banks face has moved from “whether they do it” to “how to do it more deeply.”

01

A single exam for the whole industry—how to answer the “five major articles”

As the main line of business operations in the financial sector, the financial “five major articles” offer valuable lessons from recent practices at state-owned major banks. Taking China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China as examples, both have promoted the “five major articles” through integrated financial services. China Construction Bank advances related business through “equity lending, loan-to-debt, bond guarantee and leasing” integrated financial services, the “CCB Huiduanni” platform, and “Jianyang An” pension finance services. Agricultural Bank of China, meanwhile, continues to push the “five major articles” through products and services such as “KeJieDai,” technology innovation bonds, the AIC pilot fund, inclusive services in rural areas, doorstep services for elder customers, and products such as “ABC e-loan.”

Image source: Agricultural Bank of China official WeChat subscription account

Looking at listed city commercial banks, the approach shows more distinctive regional characteristics. For example, in the case of Jiangsu Bank and Ningbo Bank, the former sticks to a positioning of serving small and medium-sized enterprises, serving the local economy, and serving urban and rural residents; the latter steps up service efforts for customer groups such as manufacturing enterprises, import and export enterprises, and private-sector micro and small enterprises. Compared with national banks, when city commercial banks advance the “five major articles,” they usually place greater emphasis on regional industrial foundations and the distinctive features of local service.

Compared with state-owned major banks, joint-stock banks do not have absolute advantages in terms of resource endowment; compared with city commercial banks that are deeply rooted in local ecosystems, their business radius is broader. When advancing the “five major articles,” they therefore need stronger cross-regional replication capabilities and differentiated operational capabilities. Using Industrial Bank, China Merchants Bank, and CITIC Bank as samples of joint-stock banks, one can perhaps understand the “how-to” path for these banks to implement the “five major articles.”

On January 22, 2026, in an article titled Constructing a Financial Ecosystem Adapted to the Laws of Scientific and Technological Innovation, the Science and Technology Daily pointed out that the 15th Five-Year Plan proposal calls for speeding up the building of a strong financial country. It also calls for vigorous development of science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance. Currently, under the national strategic guidance of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening, and the cultivation of new productive forces, the key supporting role of science and technology finance for technological innovation and industrial upgrading will become even more prominent.

On March 27, at Industrial Bank’s 2025 annual results briefing, Industrial Bank Chairman Lü Jiajin said that during the 15th Five-Year period, the “four cards” of science and technology finance, green finance, wealth banking, and investment banking should be further polished to provide strong support for doing a good job in the financial “five major articles.” This statement also implies that the medium- and long-term business layout of joint-stock banks is becoming more tightly connected with the “five major articles.”

China Merchants Bank focuses on key areas such as science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, digital finance, cross-border finance, smart manufacturing finance, and government-related finance, building systematic, characteristic, professional, data-and-intelligence-enabled, and brand-based competitive advantages. CITIC Bank takes “five leading” in wealth management, integrated financing, transaction settlement, foreign exchange services, and digitalization as its strategic starting point, providing customers with one-stop, tailored, multi-scenario, full-lifecycle professional integrated financial services.

Judging from the ways these three joint-stock banks handle the “five major articles,” Industrial Bank advances science and technology finance, green finance, wealth banking, and investment banking as “four cards,” using this distinctive strategy to do and deepen the “five major articles.” China Merchants Bank promotes cooperation among segments including retail finance, corporate finance, investment banking and financial markets, wealth management and asset management, while CITIC Bank drives continuous deepening of related business by building the “five leading” banks.

02

Science and technology, green, and inclusive—how to answer the “first three”

During the 15th Five-Year period, science and technology finance will be a key force in driving technological innovation and industrial upgrading, and it will increasingly test whether banks can provide more distinctive financial services around different stages of enterprise growth. This can also be seen in the annual report data of the three joint-stock banks. Industrial Bank’s 2025 annual report shows that the outstanding balance of science and technology finance loans was 1.12 trillion yuan, up 18.47% from the end of the previous year. China Merchants Bank’s同期 data show that in 2025 the outstanding balance of technology loans was 103.6854 billion yuan, up 8.06% from the beginning of the year. CITIC Bank disclosed that in the same period, its outstanding balance of technology loans increased by 14.75% from the end of the previous year.

Image source: Industrial Bank 2025 annual report

All three banks are strengthening science and technology finance, but in 2025 they also have different emphases in resource allocation and business advancement. China Merchants Bank lists science and technology finance as a mainline direction for serving the real economy. Around key areas such as building a modern industrial system and achieving high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening, it continues to improve specialized, differentiated, and integrated financial services covering customers’ full life cycle. CITIC Bank builds its science and technology finance into a full-lifecycle service system: it forms a full-spectrum product matrix from the seed stage to growth and maturity stages for technology enterprises, and it advances dedicated products such as technology enterprise merger-and-acquisition loans, technology firm fixed-asset loans (科技固贷), and financing secured by pledges of intellectual property rights.

Industrial Bank, meanwhile, has turned science and technology finance into the “fourth card.” At the results briefing, Lü Jiajin said, “We attach very high importance to the development of science and technology finance. We established a science and technology finance working leadership group with me serving as group leader, and we continuously improve a ‘six-support’ system consisting of performance evaluation, specialized research, product services, ecosystem partners, risk management, and technology support, to drive the rapid development of science and technology finance. The full-bank outstanding balance of science and technology finance loans remains No. 1 among joint-stock commercial banks.” On this basis, around technology-based enterprises and hard-tech enterprises, Industrial Bank builds a science-and-technology-finance ecosystem integrating five “chains”: policy chain, innovation chain, capital chain, industrial chain, and talent chain, and continues to iterate the “technology stream” evaluation model. Its 2025 annual report shows that during the reporting period, the approval amount under Industrial Bank’s “technology stream” totaled 1.15 trillion yuan.

As for the line, “One green loan brings life to an economy, enriches one’s neighbors, and is a vivid reflection of how green finance develops in China,” a statement in a series of in-depth investigation reports titled Doing a Good Job in Financial ‘Five Major Articles’ published by People’s Daily on October 20, 2025 connects green finance with industrial development and improvements to people’s livelihoods.

Taking Industrial Bank as an example, regarding how green finance should continue to move forward, Lü Jiajin also mentioned at the results briefing that, “As a pioneer in China’s green finance, we must keep our advantages in green finance. We need to focus on strengthening carbon finance innovation, so that in an increasingly intense market competition, we can shape new advantages and achieve new development.” This indicates that Industrial Bank’s advancement of green finance does not stop at growth in loan balances; it is also geared toward expanding into carbon finance innovation and service extension.

Based on the 2025 annual report data of the three joint-stock banks, in 2025 China Merchants Bank’s outstanding balance of green loans was 609.413 billion yuan, CITIC Bank’s green loan scale surpassed 750 billion yuan, and Industrial Bank’s green loan balance was 1.11 trillion yuan. In addition, Industrial Bank’s dual-carbon management platform has recorded carbon accounts for 51,500 enterprises (5.15 million accounts for enterprises) and 7.7842 million personal carbon accounts, and it has also expanded application scenarios such as carbon finance products and ESG assessment. China Merchants Bank, meanwhile, strengthens businesses including green credit, green deposits, green bonds, and green wealth management products. CITIC Bank advances the “Xin Carbon Pass” green and low-carbon service platform.

In China’s Inclusive Finance Report (2025), jointly compiled by the China Brand Development Research Institute and the National Financial and Development Laboratory, People’s Daily points out that “strengthening technology enablement and developing digital finance have become an important engine for promoting high-quality development of inclusive finance.” Judging from this, inclusive finance’s focus is shifting from traditional credit granting to digitization, scenario-based deployment, and platform collaboration.

From publicly disclosed information, Industrial Bank relies on its “Smart Market System” to推进 digital upgrades of commodity trading markets and integration with financial scenarios, and it expands inclusive services through online platforms such as “Industrial Bank Inclusive.” China Merchants Bank continues to enhance the competitiveness of data-and-intelligence-enabled inclusive finance products, optimizes system functions and credit processes for supply-chain and scenario-based finance, and improves relevant capabilities. CITIC Bank, meanwhile, deeply integrates into the micro and small enterprise financing coordination work mechanism and innovates the “Five-Financing” coordination to support a comprehensive service system for rural revitalization.

Overall, Industrial Bank relies more on building the “technology stream” evaluation approach, carbon accounts, and scenario platforms to advance science and technology finance, green finance, and inclusive finance. China Merchants Bank and CITIC Bank, respectively, continue to exert efforts in data-and-intelligence-enabled product capabilities, comprehensive services and dedicated solutions.

03

Pension finance and digital finance—how to advance the “last two”

The Guiding Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Financial “Five Major Articles” issued by the General Office of the State Council states that “we should improve the pension finance system for responding to population aging. We should continuously improve policies related to pension finance, strengthen financial support for the silver-economy, and promote high-quality development of China’s pension undertakings.” At the same time, it is necessary to “promote high-quality development of digital finance. Accelerate the digital transformation of financial institutions to enhance their capabilities for digitized business operations and services. Accelerate innovation in digital finance, and support the consolidation and expansion of the advantages of the digital economy.”

Image source: Screenshot from the official website of the China Government (中国政府网)

The layouts of joint-stock banks in pension finance show different characteristics. Industrial Bank, built upon its own advantages, focuses on its core business, innovates its models, and deepens coordination, continuously improving its pension finance business system and promoting the coordinated development of three pension-finance segments while improving the quality and effectiveness of pension finance services. In terms of pension fund finance, it continues to make efforts through the “three pillars.” In pension service finance, it comprehensively deepens system building. In pension industry finance, it speeds up the deployment of full-ecosystem services and continuously improves the “An You Life” pension finance services system.

China Merchants Bank deepens the deployment of three major business areas, using a four-in-one approach of products, services, channels, and technology. It combines wealth management and financial technology to hone customer experiences and enhance service capabilities. CITIC Bank optimizes the “Happiness+” pension finance services system. It actively carries out social security account management, fund custody, and benefit disbursement, focusing on comprehensive services for annuity customers, improving the pension finance custody and operating model, and promoting iterative upgrades of the personal pension system.

Image source: China Merchants Bank 2025 annual report

“Persist in using smart and digital transformation as a battle for life and death. Digitization and intelligence have already become key variables influencing the development model of the banking industry.” Lü Jiajin’s statement reveals the innovative value of digital finance as a whole-industry enabler.

Industrial Bank pushes digital finance forward by adhering to the “strengthening the bank with technology” strategy, advancing both the strengthening of its foundations, improving operational efficiency, and enhancing the quality and effectiveness of financial services. Currently, Industrial Bank is building a first-class intelligent bank. On how to achieve this goal, Lü Jiajin said that Industrial Bank established an artificial intelligence action leadership group, with him serving as group leader; at the same time, it issued Industrial Bank’s “Artificial Intelligence+” action plan, and it has effectively and orderly pushed “Digital Industrial Bank” toward “Intelligent Industrial Bank.”

On digital finance development, China Merchants Bank takes “online-based, data-based, intelligent, platform-based, and ecosystem-based” as its evolution direction, and accelerates the building of “Smart China Merchants Bank.” It implements the “Artificial Intelligence+” action and proposes the “AI First” philosophy. It firmly follows the AI principles of “priority,” “leading,” and “pioneering,” fully embraces the new generation of artificial intelligence revolution represented by large models, and does a great job on the digital finance “big article.” CITIC Bank uses “six transformations”—scenario-based, ecosystem-based, automated, intelligent, platform-based, and international—as the driving force, deeply advancing digital finance enabling the other four “major articles,” and continuously improving the quality and effectiveness of digital finance services.

At bottom, the results of advancing the “five major articles” cannot be judged only by the incremental growth of individual business lines. More importantly, we should see whether financial resources can continuously flow to industrial upgrading and what people’s livelihoods require, and whether quality of development and operating efficiency can be improved in the process of serving the real economy. Further speaking, only if science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance continue to deliver strong efforts and support one another in business practice can the “five major articles” count as moving from policy deployment to a deeper, more sustainable business ecosystem. As Lü Jiajin said at the results briefing, “The ultimate purpose of all production and business activities is to create value.”