As Chinese banks accelerate their global push in support of the country's high-level opening-up, international expansion is rapidly emerging as a new battleground. More lenders are turning to overseas growth to offset narrowing net interest margins and build resilience for long-term value creation.
Zhang Hui, president of Bank of China, said the bank has always treated globalisation as its core development strategy and top priority, and will continue to advance it unwaveringly.
In 2025, BOC further consolidated its advantages in global operations, with improved global network capabilities and international competitiveness. Overseas institutions contributed nearly 28 percent of its profit before income tax, and it became the first Chinese-funded global custodian bank.
BOC's overseas institutions now span 64 countries and regions, including 45 participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. Its global network serves around 28,000 Chinese enterprises expanding abroad and more than 330,000 foreign-funded companies operating in China. The bank has nearly 410,000 cross-border settlement clients and holds over half of the market share in Cross-border Interbank Payment System business. The system, also known as CIPS, specialises in renminbi cross-border payment clearing.
Zhang said the bank will continue to advance its global development strategy, further strengthening its international presence and competitiveness. At the same time, it will enhance forward-looking risk assessment and response by closely tracking evolving trends in global markets, improving monitoring and early warning systems, and safeguarding overseas assets.
Efforts will also be stepped up to develop regional headquarters, boost regional network capabilities, accelerate expansion in emerging markets and deepen regional coordination. In parallel, the bank will upgrade its digital and intelligent capabilities overseas, accelerate the application of technologies such as smart contracts and blockchain, and steadily improve operational efficiency, he said.
In its 2025 annual results announcement, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China identified global operations and integrated services as its newly pioneered "growth poles", injecting additional momentum to address the constraints of low interest margins and forge value resilience that transcends economic cycles.
As of the end of 2025, total assets of ICBC's overseas institutions reached $491.6 billion, representing 6.4 percent of the group's total assets and growing 12.4 percent from the previous year-end. Profit before taxation of its overseas institutions during the period was $4.4 billion, accounting for 7.3 percent of the group's profit before taxation.
Yao Mingde, senior executive vice-president of ICBC, said the bank's net interest margin decline is expected to narrow further in 2026 compared with last year, partly due to a more optimised asset-liability structure aligned with a high-standard opening-up strategy.
Yao said ICBC has continued to deepen integrated global operations in recent years, actively expanding overseas business and supporting the internationalisation of the renminbi.
The lender has seized opportunities from RMB internationalisation. In 2025, it was authorised to serve as the RMB clearing bank in Turkiye, bringing the total of its RMB clearing banks to 12. Its annual cross-border RMB business volume exceeded 10 trillion yuan ($1.46 trillion).
As of the end of 2025, the bank operated 410 overseas institutions in 49 countries and regions, together with a further 21 African countries through its shareholding in Standard Bank Group.
Yao noted that benchmark interest rates in major developed economies and emerging markets may decline further. In the short term, net interest margins of ICBC's overseas institutions will continue to narrow, but their contribution to national strategies and overall group value is becoming increasingly prominent.
China Construction Bank has steadily enhanced its ability to participate in international competition while supporting high-quality development and opening-up. The bank has promoted integrated operations of domestic and foreign currencies to better serve foreign trade, foreign investment and outbound enterprises. By the end of 2025, its international business loan balance amounted to 1.45 trillion yuan, up 27.47 percent year-on-year, while cross-border RMB settlements totaled 6.5 trillion yuan.
CCB has also advanced group integration and improved coordination between domestic and overseas operations. In 2025, its overseas institutions recorded a net profit of 12.04 billion yuan, up 31.74 percent year-on-year.
As China's industrial structure undergoes deep transformation and upgrading, Chinese enterprises are accelerating their global expansion, driving growing demand for diversified financial services such as cross-border financing, global cash management, and interest rate and exchange rate risk management. This requires financial services to keep pace.
Lyu Jiajin, chairman of Industrial Bank, said: "In the coming years, Chinese companies' overseas expansion will enter an accelerated phase. We must treat internationalisation as the only path to expanding our reach, as a matter of vital importance to the success or failure of our business, and as an indispensable component of our customer service."
In 2025, Industrial Bank's Hong Kong branch saw rapid growth in both operating income and operating profit, increasing by 46 percent and 49 percent year-on-year, respectively.
Lyu said the bank aims to position internationalisation as its "third transformation", alongside digitalisation and green development, and to cultivate it into a new growth driver within the next few years.
He noted that Industrial Bank will advance this strategy by strengthening its organisational framework, including establishing a chairman-led task force, designating more than 10 domestic branches as key hubs for international business, setting up specialised sub-branches, and leveraging its Hong Kong branch as a gateway to coordinate domestic and overseas expansion.
Meanwhile, the bank will enhance its services capabilities by building on strengths in tech finance, green finance, investment banking and financial markets, providing comprehensive, end-to-end financial services across markets to support companies going global.
It will also reinforce digital capabilities and risk control by upgrading cross-border payment, settlement and treasury management systems, applying artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and adhering to a prudent risk approach. Closer collaboration with research institutions and insurers will help strengthen end-to-end risk management and guard against legal, compliance and foreign exchange risks, ensuring steady and sustainable growth of its international business.
In 2025, overseas operating income of BOC, CCB, Agricultural Bank of China, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Ping An Bank all recorded double-digit growth. Notably, SPDB's operating income from its overseas and affiliated institutions rose from 10.74 billion yuan in the previous year to 16.48 billion yuan, marking a significant year-on-year increase of more than 53 percent. Growth rates for CCB and Ping An Bank also exceeded 20 percent.
ABC has continued to strengthen coordination between domestic and foreign currency operations and between onshore and offshore businesses, optimizing its cross-border financial service system. Its international settlement volume reached $1.64 trillion in 2025, up 8 percent year-on-year, while international trade financing grew by 30 percent.
Wang Wenjin, vice-president of the bank, said it will align with China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) to expand high-level opening-up and continue increasing support for the real economy in foreign trade.
ABC will work to build a closed-loop cross-border financial service system that supports high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and the global expansion of enterprises, while improving coordination between domestic and overseas operations, expanding the supply of cross-border products and strengthening financial support for key outbound investment projects.
At the same time, it will optimise its cross-border financial service system to help stabilise and upgrade foreign trade, increase support for high-quality agricultural entities, continue assisting small and micro businesses engaged in foreign trade, and develop innovative financing solutions for cross-border e-commerce alongside more diversified payment channels.
In addition, the lender will expand the provision of cross-border financial services, enrich foreign exchange risk management products and play a more active role in advancing RMB internationalisation, Wang said. - China Daily/ANN
