Last year, the six major state-owned banks’ consumer loan balances grew by more than 5500 billion yuan; the growth rates of all five major banks were above 16%. Will they surge again this year?

Ask AI · How will the industry crackdown this year affect consumer-loan disbursements?

Cailian Press (April 8) News, by (reporter Peng Kefeng) Last spring, multiple departments officially launched a special action to boost consumption, guiding banks and other institutions to increase financial supply. Now, a year has passed—how effective has it been for leading banks to help spur consumption?

Based on the annual reports of the six state-owned major banks, a preliminary tally by Cailian Press reporters shows that, as of end-2025, the six state-owned banks’ personal consumer loans (Note: based on the statistical scope in the big banks’ annual reports; mortgage loans, credit cards, and business loans are generally not included, though different banks’ statistical scopes differ slightly; data from different years are under the same statistical category within each bank) totaled about 3.33 trillion yuan, up by roughly 556 billion yuan net from the previous year. Among them, except for Postal Savings Bank, the total consumer-loan amounts of the other five state-owned major banks last year each saw growth rates exceeding 16% compared with the previous year.

Over 550 billion yuan net newly disbursed in one year by the six state-owned banks, and five consumer-loan growth rates above 16%

Over the past year, have the six state-owned banks been continuously increasing their consumer-loan disbursements? Judging from the annual reports, the answer is yes.

In terms of the outstanding stock, China Construction Bank’s personal consumer-loan balance remains at the top. At the end of last year, the balance of its personal consumer loans was 683.1 billion yuan. Next is Postal Savings Bank, with that figure at 642.7 billion yuan at end of last year. Agricultural Bank ranked third, with related data of 604.7 billion yuan. The personal consumer-loan balance at the end of last year for Bank of China was 515.7 billion yuan. Industrial and Commercial Bank’s personal consumer-loan balance was 499.0 billion yuan. Among them, Bank of Communications had the least disbursement: the data at end of last year was only 395.7 billion yuan. Based on preliminary statistics, the six state-owned banks’ personal consumer-loan balances at end of last year totaled about 3.33 trillion yuan.

Comparing the data of the six state-owned banks with last year’s figures, China Construction Bank’s personal consumer loans added cumulatively about 115.2 billion yuan last year. Postal Savings Bank added only about 28.8 billion yuan. Agricultural Bank added about 128.3 billion yuan. Bank of China added about 113.9 billion yuan. ICBC added about 77.8 billion yuan. CCB? (Bank of Communications) added about 55.5 billion yuan. In terms of growth rate, last year only Postal Savings Bank’s personal consumer-loan balance growth rate was in the single digits; the growth rates of the other five major banks were all above 16%.

At recent performance meetings, some bank executives also offered explanations. In response to CCB? (China Construction Bank) Vice President Tang Shuo said that in terms of boosting consumption through financial support, CCB? mainly carried out three major tasks: first, actively strengthening business and financial writing, and coordinating to conduct consumption-boosting activities; second, taking initiative to implement a package of fiscal and monetary policies to promote domestic demand; third, focusing on key consumer areas and increasing efforts in financial support and innovation.

In recent months, several banks have also gradually disclosed last year’s fiscal interest-subsidy information related to consumer loans through their annual reports, announcements, and so on. In its annual report, ICBC disclosed that it orderly advanced its work on fiscal interest subsidies for personal consumer loans. It signed interest-subsidy service agreements with customers of about 1.9 million accounts, and processed interest subsidies for more than 30 million transactions of consumer spending that meet the eligibility criteria for interest subsidies. Bank of Communications disclosed that it implemented policies on fiscal interest subsidies for personal consumer loans. It signed fiscal interest-subsidy agreements with 1.4642 million customer accounts, covering consumer spending amounts eligible for subsidies of 16.25 billion yuan. In a recent announcement, ABC stated that, currently, Agricultural Bank has 2 million customers who have signed interest-subsidy agreements, cumulatively providing fiscal interest-subsidy services to more than 850k customers.

Last year’s six banks’ new consumer-loan disbursements were hard to offset the “collapse” in mortgage loans; insiders say this year’s new consumer loans may lose momentum

So how should we understand why most state-owned banks increased the scale of their personal consumer-loan disbursements last year?

In response, sources from state-owned banks told reporters that on one hand, against the backdrop of personal mortgage disbursements becoming increasingly difficult, the big banks have no choice but to reach downward—competing with other consumer-loan mainstays such as city commercial banks—to find room for credit growth. On the other hand, it is also related to the special action launched by relevant departments to boost consumption. “The profit space for consumer loans is very limited, but we also need to provide more support for boosting domestic demand.”

Cailian Press reporters noted that in terms of total loan amounts, the incremental increase in the personal consumer loans disbursed by the six big banks last year was obviously unable to offset the “collapse” in mortgage loans—there was a gap of about 160 billion yuan between the six banks’ personal consumer-loan disbursement volume and the reduction in mortgage loans last year. Moreover, compared with mortgages, consumer-loan interest rates are clearly lower.

Will banks continue to increase consumer-loan disbursements this year? On this point, multiple sources from state-owned major banks and city commercial banks told reporters that they will closely watch national policies and disburse at an appropriate time. However, for this year’s overall growth rate of consumer loans, “it’s not very optimistic.”

“Recently, the industry rectification of consumer finance, aid-lending, and other sectors will have a certain degree of impact on consumer-loan business.” A bank source told reporters that although many banks have consumer finance companies, in order to further increase consumer-loan disbursements, many banks in the past would work with other institutions (such as aid-lending institutions, etc.) to originate loans. But with changes in the environment, more banks are choosing to originate consumer loans independently, reducing external reliance, which to a certain extent will affect consumer loans’ rapid “scaling up.” On the other hand, in recent years—especially last year—nonperforming loans on personal consumer loans have risen. From the perspective of risk control, this year banks will be even more prudent and conservative.

“This year, our bank has basically not set any growth target for consumer-loan disbursements. And we have already comprehensively stopped joint lending. In marketing this year, we will be more inclined to target high-quality customer groups such as those with provident fund accounts.” A listed bank source told reporters that under the influence of multiple factors, it is expected that this year banks’ personal consumer-loan disbursements will not show significant growth compared with last year, and the growth rate will also decline.

(Cailian Press reporter Peng Kefeng)