Under strategic choices and regional economic collisions, the landscape of urban commercial banks is undergoing a historic reshuffle.
By the end of the first half of 2025, Beijing Bank's 18-year monopoly on the scale of listed urban commercial banks as the &#34;top player&#34; has been broken;
Jiangsu Bank, based in the Yangtze River Delta, achieved total assets of 4.79 trillion yuan at the end of the period, surpassing Beijing Bank in a phased manner with an advantage of 40 billion yuan.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/dedbd153-9d67-41b8-9fbc-2555324a0a05.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/dedbd153-9d67-41b8-9fbc-2555324a0a05.png"/>
A gap of 40 billion yuan may not seem significant for leading urban commercial banks, but in terms of profitability and comprehensive evaluation under the &#34;volume-price-risk&#34; multidimensional perspective, Jiangsu Bank's current strength cannot be underestimated:
As early as 2022, Jiangsu Bank's revenue and profit figures and growth rates had already surpassed those of Beijing Bank;
In the first half of 2025, Jiangsu Bank's revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders were 44.864 billion yuan and 20.238 billion yuan, respectively, with year-on-year growth of 7.78% and 8.05%. These two figures not only place it in the upper tier of the industry but are also higher than Beijing Bank by 6.76 and 6.93 percentage points, respectively.
From the perspective of &#34;volume-price-risk&#34; balance, Jiangsu Bank's total assets in the first half were 21.16%, which is 8.63 percentage points higher than Beijing Bank, with a net interest margin of 1.78%, exceeding Beijing Bank by 0.47 percentage points, and a non-performing loan ratio of 0.84%, better than Beijing Bank by 0.46 percentage points;
At the same time, Jiangsu Bank's provision coverage ratio is also 135.28 percentage points higher than that of Beijing Bank, indicating that the bank still retains ample &#34;financial buffer&#34; under various advantages.
The leading multidimensional data confirms Jiangsu Bank's rise, indicating that its current peak is not a momentary stroke of luck but the result of years of accumulation.
As of the close on October 24, Jiangsu Bank's total market value reached 2.00213 trillion yuan, 1.64 times that of Beijing Bank; its stock price has increased by 10.96% this year, exceeding Beijing Bank by 18.27 percentage points.
From surpassing core indicators to total market value, the once &#34;king&#34; Beijing Bank may be facing greater pressure.
<h2>From Catching Up to Surpassing</h2>
Since its listing in 2007, Beijing Bank's asset scale has long occupied the top position among urban commercial banks.
From an external perspective, this is attributed to the unique location advantages of the capital and the time window for the reform of urban commercial banks.
On one hand, the capital's economic status during the economic upturn and home-field advantage provided Beijing Bank with a natural advantage that other urban commercial banks could hardly match;
On the other hand, as one of the first batch of reformed urban commercial banks, Beijing Bank was formed in 1996 by merging 90 urban credit cooperatives, and after undergoing renaming, capital introduction, and restructuring, it became one of the first urban commercial banks to enter the capital market in 2007.
It can be observed that Beijing Bank's starting hand was not bad—many key decisions at that time were at the forefront of the industry:
For example, in 2000, Beijing Bank established the first comprehensive accounting center in the industry, achieving &#34;one account&#34; for the entire bank's operations;
In 2005, the Dutch ING Group and other international financial companies were introduced, and cooperation was established to launch innovative models such as &#34;direct banks&#34; and community banks, taking the lead in conducting risk stress tests among peers.
In contrast, Jiangsu Bank, which completed its integration in 2007 and was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2016, lagged far behind Beijing Bank in terms of financing capability, brand credibility, and branch layout in its early years.
However, with the support of the local economy and the Yangtze River Delta, Jiangsu Bank has consistently performed well, with particularly outstanding profitability:
According to Xinfeng statistics, in the 18 years following 2006, Beijing Bank's net profit growth attributable to the parent company was only higher than that of Jiangsu Bank in the years 2008, 2012, and 2014, while in all other years it fell short.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/153c4ae3-be6a-4c1f-b1f4-7167278b3646.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/153c4ae3-be6a-4c1f-b1f4-7167278b3646.png"/>
After years of catching up, Jiangsu Bank achieved stable surpassing of Beijing Bank's profit and revenue growth in 2015 and 2019, and continued to widen the gap.
By 2022, Jiangsu Bank completed two key surpasses:
First, its revenue and profit scale surpassed that of Beijing Bank, becoming the top listed city commercial bank;
Second, its asset scale surpassed that of Shanghai Bank, becoming the second largest listed city commercial bank.
Whether due to pressure from latecomers or recognition of the regional value of the Yangtze River Delta through the rise of latecomers, Beijing Bank released the &#34;Yangtze River Delta Integration Work Plan&#34; in 2022, clearly outlining the tasks, timetable, and roadmap for the next three years;
The following year, it proposed a new idea—to recreate a Beijing Bank in the Yangtze River Delta.
Behind the southward journey is Beijing Bank's desire for incremental market growth:
On one hand, the GDP growth rate in Beijing is lower than that of the Yangtze River Delta, and the financial, technology, information transmission software, and information technology service industries, after the deconcentration of non-capital functions and industrial adjustments, have higher demands for financial services;
On the other hand, this stems from the pressure exerted on Beijing Bank's business by the expansion of various national banks and their branches in Beijing.
For example, among the commercial banks in Beijing, whether Beijing Bank focuses on high-end customers or sinks to target county markets, it must face local competition from &#34;brother banks&#34; such as Huaxia Bank and Beijing Rural Commercial Bank.
In mid-2023, Beijing Bank's Suzhou branch was inaugurated, and by the end of the first half of the year, the bank's customer loans in the Yangtze River Delta region had increased by 14.04% compared to the beginning of the year;
At that time, Dai Wei, who was still the vice president, revealed that the company's branch layout in the Yangtze River Delta was sufficient, &#34;the loan growth rate and revenue contribution in this region have significantly increased, hence the proposal for recreation.&#34;
Although the management has not stated that the &#34;recreation plan&#34; is related to Jiangsu Bank, considering the timing and content, the new strategy may also be Beijing Bank's counterattack against latecomers.
To implement the &#34;recreation plan,&#34; Beijing Bank has taken a series of specific actions in institutional setup and resource allocation:
In 2023, it clearly stated that it would increase the credit resource allocation for emerging industries, advanced manufacturing, and green industries in the Yangtze River Delta;
In 2025, a Yangtze River Delta approval center will be established, adopting a parallel operation model with first-tier cities to enhance approval quality and efficiency, while also undertaking the pilot tasks for the regional adaptation of innovative products and the reform of risk control models from the head office.
Today, the Yangtze River Delta has become Beijing Bank's second-largest market, following the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Bohai Rim regions:
From 2023 to 2024, the loan growth rates in this region were 27.4% and 12.72% respectively, exceeding the overall loan growth rate of the bank by 14.66 and 3.07 percentage points;
By the end of the first half of 2025, the proportion of regional loans increased from 10.59% in 2022 to 23.46%.
Although Beijing Bank's credit expansion speed in the Yangtze River Delta has far exceeded that of the entire bank, such speed is still far from enough in the fiercely competitive Yangtze River Delta region:
By the end of the first half of 2025, credit in the Yangtze River Delta region grew by 10.66% compared to the beginning of the year, exceeding the overall level of the bank by 2.48 percentage points;
However, during the same period, the overall loan growth rates of Jiangsu Bank, Ningbo Bank, and Nanjing Bank, which primarily operate in the Yangtze River Delta, were 16.38%, 13.47%, and 10.41% respectively;
This means that Beijing Bank's current expansion speed in the Yangtze River Delta region is still difficult to surpass local forces.
In the first half of 2025, the profit contribution rate of Beijing Bank in the Yangtze River Delta region increased from 6.15% in 2022 to 12.69%, while the revenue contribution rate decreased from 12.42% to 11.42%, and the asset scale proportion rose from 12.03% to 14.05%;
Reality proves that it is still far from the goal of &#34;recreating a Beijing Bank.&#34;
Moreover, the investment in the Yangtze River Delta region has not helped Beijing Bank reverse its current decline:
By the first half of 2025, the bank's asset scale has been surpassed by Jiangsu Bank, and its revenue has been surpassed by Ningbo Bank, with the gap in net profit attributable to the parent company narrowing between Ningbo Bank, Shanghai Bank, and Nanjing Bank.
Under the pressure from various city commercial banks in the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing Bank's leading position among peers is now precarious.
<h2>The Yangtze River Delta is Fierce</h2>
From the perspective of regional economics, Jiangsu Bank's surpassing of Beijing Bank is also reasonable.
After all, behind Jiangsu Bank is the thriving Yangtze River Delta—this region occupies only 2.3% of the country's land area but contributes nearly a quarter of the GDP, with a large and diverse financing demand nurturing stronger financial institutions:
By the first half of 2025, more than half of the top 10 city commercial banks in terms of asset scale in China originated from the Yangtze River Delta, with Jiangsu Bank, Ningbo Bank, and Shanghai Bank all exceeding 3 trillion yuan, and Nanjing Bank being just a step away from 3 trillion yuan;
Among them, Jiangsu Bank, Ningbo Bank, and Nanjing Bank all have non-performing loan ratios of less than 1%, with provision coverage ratios above 300%. While achieving high growth in performance, their asset quality also remains at a relatively good level.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/6ac88c0e-e727-48d0-b5e5-a4e05981b204.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/6ac88c0e-e727-48d0-b5e5-a4e05981b204.png"/>
The businesses of these banks are mostly deeply tied to provincial resources, with operations radiating throughout the Yangtze River Delta region. They are adept at flexibly seizing various opportunities in middle-income, wealth management, investment banking, and more while having complete licenses;
**
For example, Bank of Ningbo focuses on wealth management, Nanjing Bank is strengthening comprehensive finance, while Jiangsu Bank excels in corporate and investment banking.
As a major economic province, Jiangsu has ranked first in the national high-quality development index of the manufacturing industry for several consecutive years, providing banks with abundant customer sources and business opportunities for corporate services;
The unique &#34;Thirteen Taibao&#34; pattern brings a multi-center economic structure, which also provides ample development space for local banks.
As of the first half of 2025, Jiangsu Bank has 18 branches and 540 institutions at all levels, achieving full coverage of counties in Jiangsu Province, with the proportion of domestic loans reaching 84.06% and 8.17% in other areas of the Yangtze River Delta.
In corporate business, the bank's loans in the first half of 2025 increased by 23.3% compared to the beginning of the year, accounting for nearly 70% of the total loan amount;
From 2020 to 2024, the loan scale rose from 636.9 billion yuan to 1.3179 trillion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 19.94%.
In segmented industries, loans to the leasing and business services industry, manufacturing, and water conservancy, environment, and public facilities management account for a high proportion, at 18.33%, 14.84%, and 8.06%, respectively.
In investment banking, Jiangsu Bank's financial investment assets accounted for nearly 40% of total assets in the first half of the year;
Asset adjustments have also been quite active, for example, trading financial assets increased by 16% compared to the beginning of the year, among which fund investments grew by 25.14%, bond investments decreased by 20.77%, and wealth management investments increased by 18.93%.
Against the backdrop of interest rate marketization and narrowing net interest margins, a more diversified asset allocation strategy may have helped Jiangsu Bank achieve a higher return rate than traditional deposit and loan businesses.
From this perspective, the business structure choices of Bank of Beijing are quite similar to those of Jiangsu Bank:
At the end of the first half of the year, its corporate loans accounted for 70% of total loans, and financial investment assets accounted for over 35% of total assets.
However, the gap between the two lies in that Bank of Beijing's credit business, whether in terms of balance sheet expansion speed or net interest margin, is far inferior to Jiangsu Bank:
In 2024, although the cost rate of interest-bearing liabilities for Bank of Beijing was slightly lower than that of Jiangsu Bank, the yield on interest-bearing assets was 0.55 percentage points lower than that of Jiangsu Bank, and the overall net interest margin lagged by 0.47 percentage points;
During the same period, Jiangsu Bank's year-on-year growth rate of interest-bearing assets reached 11.42%, exceeding Bank of Beijing by 3.34 percentage points;
As a result, Bank of Beijing's traditional credit business has fallen behind.
Today, Bank of Beijing has regarded digital transformation as its focus and proposed the &#34;All in AI&#34; strategy, aiming to build a world-class digital bank and strive to make artificial intelligence its core competitiveness;
While pushing forward the &#34;reconstruction plan,&#34; it has also reached strategic cooperation with Huaxia Bank and Beijing Rural Commercial Bank on the internal front in Beijing.
However, whether such a strategy can help Bank of Beijing break through amidst the surrounding city commercial banks in the Yangtze River Delta remains to be seen over time

601169

Under the collision of strategic choices and regional economies, the landscape of urban commercial banks is undergoing a historic reshuffle. By the end of the first half of 2025, Beijing Bank has monopolized for 18 years

The reshuffling of city commercial banks: How Beijing Bank, which failed in the south, is "attacked from both sides"