The bank with the highest net interest margin in the A-share market is welcoming its youngest president.
Recently, Changshu Bank announced that President Bao Jian and Vice President Li Yong have resigned due to job changes;
On the same day, the new presidential candidate emerged, with Vice President Lu Dingchang taking on the roles of both President and Chief Compliance Officer.
Lu Dingchang, 39 years old, has grown within the Changshu Bank system, starting as a grassroots loan officer and serving as the head of departments such as the Inclusive Finance Department and the Microfinance Headquarters, as well as gaining experience in branch management.
Once regulatory approval is completed, he will set the record for the youngest president among A-share listed banks.
His predecessor, Bao Jian, was also the youngest president among listed banks and started from the grassroots level, working his way up from a teller to the position of president, leading the establishment of the microfinance business and creating the &#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; model that focuses on county-level markets.
Benefiting from the &#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; model, the bank has seen many performance highlights in recent years:
First, at the end of the third quarter, the net interest margin continued to rank first among A-share banks, maintaining a high level of 2.57%;
Second, the growth potential is strong, with a three-year compound annual growth rate for revenue, net profit, and return on equity ranking among the top in the industry.
While demonstrating strong anti-cyclical capabilities, the bank still seems to rely on the &#34;human sea tactics&#34; of loan officers:
Xinfeng noted that by the end of 2024, the bank not only has a workforce far exceeding that of similar-sized peers, but its cost-to-income ratio, revenue per capita, and profit per capita are all at the bottom of the industry.
The soaring performance and disjointed efficiency together constitute the &#34;AB side&#34; of Changshu Bank's county-level business.
Now, the bank has welcomed another president from a loan officer background;
This new &#34;helmsman,&#34; who is well-versed in the Changshu model and has rich frontline experience, will lead Changshu Bank in what manner to continue expanding its territory remains to be seen.
<h2>Stabilizing Interest Margin</h2>
In the first three quarters of this year, Changshu Bank's revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders were 9.052 billion yuan and 3.357 billion yuan, with year-on-year growth rates of 8.15% and 12.82%, respectively;
Although the growth rates of these two figures show a continuous contraction compared to the full-year growth rates of 16.2% and 10.53% for 2024, they still rank in the first tier among the 42 listed banks in the A-share market, both placing fifth, second only to Jiangyin Bank among rural commercial banks.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/ff4cf9b2-81c6-4386-a881-3bdf81e5ffce.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/ff4cf9b2-81c6-4386-a881-3bdf81e5ffce.png"/> The leading growth compared to peers comes from the simultaneous increase in interest, fee income, and investment income:
On one hand, the growth of interest income, which contributes nearly 80% to revenue, increased by 2.39%, stabilizing the performance base.
At the end of the third quarter, Changshu Bank's net interest margin decreased by 14 basis points compared to the beginning of the year;
The loan scale maintained rapid expansion, growing by 7.03% from the beginning of the year to 248.823 billion yuan, successfully achieving volume to compensate for price.
Despite being in a downward channel, Changshu Bank's net interest margin remains its biggest competitive advantage:
At the end of the third quarter, the bank still maintained a net interest margin of 2.57%, the highest level among A-share listed banks, exceeding Zhengzhou Bank, which ranked second, by 20 basis points, and also surpassing the overall level of rural commercial banks by 99 basis points;
From a trend perspective, the bank's net interest margin decline has continued to narrow, with a slight decrease of only 0.01 percentage points quarter-on-quarter at the end of the third quarter, and it has basically stabilized.
Xinfeng noted that among the various interest-earning assets of Changshu Bank, retail credit is particularly prominent:
In the first half of the year, the contribution rates of retail and corporate credit to interest income were 54.73% and 24.69%, respectively;
Among them, the retail scale accounted for more than half of the total loans, with an asset yield as high as 6.59%, which is already &#34;far ahead&#34; among listed banks.
Compared to peers, Changshu Bank's loan yield of 5.33% and deposit cost rate of 1.96% in the first half of the year are similar to Ping An Bank, which had the best net interest margin performance among joint-stock banks in 2023 and focused on a &#34;high-risk-high-return&#34; strategy;
The difference between the two is that Ping An has had to adjust its credit business through an almost &#34;hard landing&#34; approach to ensure the safety of existing assets, as the bitter fruit of exchanging risk for return has continued to be exposed in the downward cycle, and it is still &#34;scraping bones to cure poison&#34;;
Meanwhile, Changshu Bank's non-performing loan ratio remains controlled at 0.76%, with a provision coverage ratio as high as 462.95%, both of which rank second among the 42 banks in A-shares, indicating excellent performance in the industry.
On the other hand, although Changshu Bank's investment and fee income are limited in scale, they are gradually forming their own characteristics.
In the first three quarters, the revenue contribution rate of the bank's investment business reached 18.44%.
This part of the income may stem from the grasp of bond market fluctuations. Changshu Bank revealed that in the first half of the year, it achieved investment income of 1.201 billion yuan from bond and other trading businesses based on market trends, a year-on-year increase of 30%;
In the third quarterly report, this part of the income continued to increase to 1.669 billion yuan, but the growth rate shrank to less than 20%, while bond investment assets significantly decreased, which should be due to the realization of some profits from timing in the third quarter.
In recent years, Changshu Bank has been active in the bond market fluctuations, once known as the &#34;four small dragons of rural commercial banks in interest rate bonds,&#34; and even faced self-discipline penalties from the trading association in 2024 for allegedly violating trading regulations in the secondary market for government bonds.
However, it seems that the bank's bond trading capability is indeed quite outstanding:
In the first three quarters, the total investment income and changes in fair value amounted to 491 million yuan, achieving a year-on-year doubling, outperforming peers.
In addition to investment capability, Changshu Bank's light asset business is also growing.
In the first three quarters, the contribution rate of fee income to total revenue was only 3.34%, but the year-on-year growth rate reached 364.75%, mainly due to increased commission income from agency wealth management services;
In the first half of the year, the bank sold 7.277 billion yuan in wealth management products and 260 million yuan in insurance, with the number of private banking clients growing by 10.8% to 4,214 by the end of the second quarter, and total client assets reaching 28.677 billion yuan.
<h2>The Path of Microfinance</h2>
In recent years, the growth path of Changshu Bank is quite representative among commercial banks.
Xinfeng's statistics show that in the past three years (from 2022 to the first three quarters of 2025), the compound annual growth rates of the bank's revenue, net profit, and return on equity were 35.48%, 60.3%, and 14.66%, respectively;
These three indicators rank second among the 42 A-share banks, making it one of the most notable growth banks in A-shares
The impressive performance stems from Changshu Bank's accumulated &#34;moat&#34; in the county market.
Since its transformation from a rural credit cooperative to a rural commercial bank in 2001, serving the &#34;three rural issues and two small enterprises&#34; has always been the core positioning of the bank;
To solve the challenges of risk control, the bank introduced German IPC micro-lending technology in 2009, and through the localization transformation by the management team, formed the &#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; model of &#34;IPC technology + credit factory + mobile platform.&#34;
It can be observed that this model has become the core that distinguishes Changshu Bank from other small and medium-sized banks:
On one hand, &#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; has established a small micro-lending model with light collateral and heavy cash flow, formulating standardized processes that balance risk and scale, which is highly replicable;
Coupled with the rare investment management village bank license (hereinafter referred to as &#34;investment management bank&#34;) held by Changshu Bank, the effectiveness of this model has been further amplified.
In early 2019, the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the &#34;Opinions on Promoting Rural Commercial Banks to Adhere to Positioning, Strengthen Governance, and Enhance Financial Service Capabilities,&#34; requiring rural commercial banks to generally &#34;not operate outside the county and not conduct business across counties&#34;;
Shortly thereafter, Changshu Bank obtained the only investment management bank license among rural commercial banks and established an investment management bank in Hainan—Xingfu Village Bank.
This means that the bank can not only break the restrictions on cross-regional operations and establish village banks in other locations but also manage its village banks in a centralized manner through the investment management bank platform, shortening the management chain and improving efficiency.
Against this backdrop, Changshu Bank began to promote the &#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; model nationwide through the investment management bank license.
In 2024, the revenue contribution rate from areas outside Changshu reached 73.52%, and the pre-provision profit accounted for 80.48%;
Among them, the revenue contribution rates of village banks within Jiangsu Province and those outside the province were 7.56% and 16.96%, respectively.
On the other hand, the risk control of &#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; has also prevented the bank from experiencing significant defaults in credit loans;
The focus on the county market has allowed the bank to demonstrate stronger risk resistance during periods of housing price adjustments, declines in residents' asset values, and significant reductions in consumer willingness.
In 2024, the bank has cumulatively served over 1.5 million small micro-lending customers, with a long-term non-performing loan rate of less than 1%;
&#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; has not only been successfully replicated at Xingfu Village Bank but has even achieved systematic output to peers, forming a model.
The net interest margin under this model has also become Changshu Bank's &#34;moat.&#34;
This may explain why the selection criteria and paths for Changshu Bank's management differ from those of other listed banks.
The core of IPC technology in controlling risk lies in people; credit officers need to conduct on-site visits, observe and estimate the monthly cash flow of clients, and even inquire with neighbors and suppliers to assess clients' repayment willingness;
The adopted &#34;single system&#34; requires credit officers to be fully responsible for the marketing, investigation, issuance, and recovery of loans throughout the entire process.
Wind Research has concluded that the bank's management has two major characteristics: first, it is youthful, and second, it starts from the grassroots level.
As of 2024, the average age of Changshu Bank's management is 47, significantly lower than that of its peers. The former president, Bao Jian, and vice president, Zhou Bin, are both from the post-80s generation, while the new president, Lu Dingchang, is from the post-85s generation;
At the same time, Bao Jian, Zhou Bin, and Lu Dingchang all started as tellers or loan officers at Changshu Bank;
The first two promoted the &#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; model from establishment to maturity, while the latter's growth from loan officer to head of the microfinance headquarters coincides with the bank's microfinance system.
<h2>Growth Side B</h2>
However, the growth under the &#34;Changyin Microfinance&#34; model did not come without cost.
The operational efficiency during Changshu Bank's expansion was not outstanding, with a cost-to-income ratio of 34.44% in the first three quarters, ranking poorly among peers (4/42).
Although the bank has now increased its investment in technology, forming a technical system for micro-loan integration, risk control integration, account processing, channel integration, and data analysis, and has reached an advanced level in software testing, quality management, and data management;
In actual operations, however, human resources remain the most critical resource.
For example, Changshu Bank has deeply cultivated deposits in a three-tier grid of towns, administrative villages, and natural villages, implementing precise marketing through &#34;iron feet + big data + grid&#34; and innovating community steward service models to establish close connections with customers;
The &#34;iron feet&#34; refer to loan officers actively going down to the grassroots level, and the steward model also requires employees to provide proactive service.
In terms of loans, the bank has jointly carried out special actions with the Changshu Municipal Organization Department, forming a &#34;fine network micro-grid&#34; in rural areas + &#34;community steward&#34; in urban grid areas, actively exploring external grids, with pilot promotion in the Su-Xi region;
At the same time, it focuses on existing customers, conducting full visits every quarter, combining marketing middle office opportunity management, and reaching out proactively in a layered and categorized manner;
All of the above also relies on the quantity and quality of loan officers.
By the end of 2024, the bank's employees reached 7,437, while Chengdu Bank, with a similar number of employees, has total assets 3.41 times larger;
In the same year, the bank's per capita revenue and profit were 1.4669 million yuan and 512,700 yuan, ranking 42nd (last) and 37th among A-share banks respectively.
The low per capita productivity puts pressure on further expansion of Changshu Bank:
If the old model is followed to replicate the &#34;human sea tactics&#34; in more regions, it will continuously amplify management cost pressures;
At the same time, the bank's per capita salary of 345,000 yuan in 2024 is already at a low level among A-share peers (40/42), lacking competitiveness in the high-end talent market.
If Changshu Bank still hopes for more breakthroughs in loan business, the key may lie in achieving refined and intelligent upgrades of the &#34;human sea tactics&#34; through technological empowerment, enhancing individual effectiveness.
In the new round of management changes, along with the appointment of President Lu Dingchang, there were two other pieces of news: one is the new appointments of Vice Presidents Zhang Kangde and Ni Jianfeng, and the other is that the shareholder Changshu City Investment Holdings has increased its stake in the company by 0.17%.
With the new management team and shareholder support in place, whether Changshu Bank can achieve more breakthroughs in expansion remains to be seen over time

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The bank with the highest net interest margin in A-shares is welcoming its youngest president. Recently, Changshu Bank announced that President Bao Jian and Vice President Li Yong are both undergoing job changes

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