The 24 listed banks made a combined net profit of 1.87 trillion yuan last year

Reporter Su Xiangqiao

As of April 4, 9 A-share listed banks have disclosed their 24 annual reports. The 2022 listed banks that have not yet disclosed their annual reports will do so in a centralized manner from April 18 to 4. At present, the six major state-owned banks and some joint-stock banks have disclosed their annual reports, and the overall operation of listed banks in 25 is becoming clearer.

From the core indicators, the net profit of the 24 listed banks in 2022 totaled 1.87 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%. Among them, 22 companies narrowed their net interest margin, accounting for 91%; 17 non-performing loans decreased their non-performing loan ratio, accounting for 70.8%; Thirteen companies fell in capital adequacy ratios, accounting for 13%.

Net interest margin generally declined

Non-interest income is under pressure

For example, according to the scale of net profit, the 24 listed banks present "three echelons": Industrial and Commercial Bank, Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, these 5 net profit scale exceeds 1000 billion yuan, in the first echelon; 11 banks, including Industrial Bank, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank, are between 100 billion yuan and 1000 billion yuan, ranking in the second echelon; Eight banks, including Bank of Chongqing and Bank of Qingdao, are less than 8 billion yuan and are in the third echelon.

In terms of the year-on-year growth rate of net profit, different listed banks have differentiated. For example, five banks, including Zhangjiagang Bank, Jiangyin Bank, Ping An Bank, Changshu Bank and Wuxi Bank, all grew by more than 5% last year, showing good growth. Although the growth rate of CP Bank, Bank of Ningbo, China Merchants Bank, China CITIC Bank, Postal Savings Bank, Bank of Beijing and Industrial Bank was less than 20%, it was also more than 20%, outperforming the average of listed banks in disclosed annual reports.

Overall, the total net profit of 24 banks last year increased by 7.1% year-on-year, and the growth rate narrowed. In 2021, the combined net profit of these 24 banks increased by 12.9% year-on-year.

The narrowing of net profit growth is related to the general narrowing of the net interest margin of commercial banks and the pressure on non-interest income.

At present, among the listed banks that have disclosed their annual reports, the proportion of net interest income to revenue generally exceeds 70%, and the narrowing of net interest margin has a more obvious impact on the net profit of listed banks.

"In the fourth quarter of last year, loan interest rates continued to decline, the cost of core liabilities, especially the cost of public liabilities, rose, and the interest rate spreads of most banks continued to come under pressure to the downside, among which large banks narrowed relatively much due to more undertaking the task of 'stabilizing credit' and the relatively high proportion of core liabilities; Some small and medium-sized banks have taken advantage of measures such as sinking customers and increasing the proportion of credit loans to promote the stability of net interest margin. Wang Yifeng, chief financial analyst of Everbright Securities, said.

From the data level, according to the reporter's statistics, among the above 24 banks, except for Jiangyin Bank and Bank of China, the net interest margin last year increased compared with the previous year, and the other 22 declined.

A number of listed bank executives also recently mentioned the reasons for the decline in net interest margins at the results conference. Liu Rong, Chief Financial Officer of CCB, said, "Last year, CCB's net interest margin fell by 11 basis points, which is basically in line with the trend of the same industry, and the main factors are the decline in the benchmark loan interest rate (LPR) and the decline in the market interest rate. ”

Fu Wanjun, President of the Agricultural Bank of China, said that there are many factors in the decline in the net interest margin of the Agricultural Bank, and the main factors are twofold: first, reducing financing costs and stabilizing the overall economic market, LPR has been continuously reduced, and the loan interest rate has decreased by 14 basis points compared with the previous year; Second, affected by the trend of deposit regularization, the deposit interest payment ratio increased by 9 basis points.

A number of banks said at the annual report and results conference that the downward pressure on net interest margin is still a key issue to focus on in operation in 2023.

In terms of non-interest income, according to the reporter's statistics, the total fee and commission income of the above 24 banks in 2022 fell by 2.6% year-on-year. Wang Yifeng believes that the pressure on non-interest income of some banks is related to factors such as the sharp redemption of wealth management in the fourth quarter of last year, the slowdown in the sales of funds and other businesses, the impact of fee reductions on fee income, and the impact of the epidemic on bank cards, investment banking and other business development.

5 banks

The non-performing loan ratio increased year-on-year

The non-performing loan ratio and capital adequacy ratio are key indicators of regulatory and market attention.

In terms of non-performing loan ratio, according to reporter statistics, in 2022, the above 24 banks will be below 2%. Among them, 7 banks, including China Merchants Bank, have a non-performing loan ratio of less than 1%. In terms of growth, 5 non-performing loan ratios increased year-on-year, 2 remained flat, and the rest declined.

Zeng Gang, director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, told the Securities Daily reporter that the increase in the non-performing loan ratio of some listed banks is related to the increase in the non-performing credit rate of public real estate. However, the negative impact of the real estate non-performing loan ratio on asset quality will be significantly reduced this year.

In addition to the negative impact of the real estate industry, some banks mentioned in their annual reports that in 2022, affected by the macroeconomic downturn and other factors, the non-performing rate of social services, science and technology, culture, health, construction and other industries will increase slightly compared with the end of the previous year.

Regarding the trend of asset quality in 2023, a number of bank executives said at the results conference that they have confidence and confidence to continue to maintain stable asset quality.

Wang Jingwu, Vice President of ICBC, said that ICBC's management has the confidence and confidence to continue to achieve stable asset quality, and confidence and confidence mainly come from two aspects: on the one hand, the environment for China's economy to stabilize and improve, and on the other hand, ICBC's good risk management capabilities.

Zhang Xuguang, deputy governor of the Agricultural Bank of China, said that the asset quality of the Agricultural Bank of China is expected to remain basically stable in 2023. The macroeconomic recovery has continued to improve, and the quality, balance, safety and sustainability of economic development have become stronger, providing a good external environment for banks to stabilize asset quality. The credit risk management and control capabilities of the Agricultural Bank of China are also constantly improving.

From the perspective of capital adequacy ratio, 5 listed banks, including ICBC, temporarily ranked in the forefront of this indicator at the end of 2022, all exceeding 17%. From the year-on-year change, 14 banks showed a decline in this indicator, with the highest decline of 3.27 percentage points, and 10 improved. On the whole, some listed city commercial banks have low capital adequacy ratios and have a large decline.

A number of industry insiders said that in 2023, some city commercial banks will have relatively limited capital replenishment channels, weak endogenous capital capacity, and capital replenishment pressure may continue to be higher than that of large state-owned banks and joint-stock banks. (Securities Daily)