1. Revenue: Net Interest Income Drives Growth; Fee-Income Volatility Mirrors Broader Industry Trends

Bank of Chongqing's headline revenue figures provide a useful starting point.

In 2025, the bank reported revenue of RMB 15.113 billion, up 10.48% year on year, while net profit attributable to shareholders rose 10.49% to RMB 5.654 billion.

The momentum carried into the first quarter of 2026. Revenue increased 11.57% to RMB 3.996 billion and net profit rose 11.22% to RMB 1.898 billion, marking another quarter of double-digit growth in both metrics.

Preliminary results for the first half of 2026 showed revenue of RMB 8.486 billion, up 10.80% year on year; profit before tax of RMB 4.081 billion, up 7.82%; and net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 3.518 billion, up 10.28%. This marked a fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in both revenue and attributable net profit, making Bank of Chongqing the only bank among the 42 listed on China's A-share market to do so.

A closer look at the revenue mix shows that net interest income has been the principal growth engine. It reached RMB 12.459 billion in 2025, an increase of 22.44%. The momentum remained firm in 2026, with first-quarter net interest income rising 12.83% to RMB 3.548 billion, pointing to another solid first-half performance.

As a locally rooted city commercial bank, Bank of Chongqing has played an active role in supporting the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. Growth backed by strong demand from the real economy is more sustainable and gives the bank a defensible revenue base in an increasingly competitive market.

Fee and commission income tells a different story. Banks' fee businesses have entered a period of deep adjustment amid tighter enforcement of rules requiring reported bancassurance commission rates to match actual payments, lower mutual-fund distribution fees, and volatility in wealth-management markets. Sharper swings in wealth-management markets produced a marked divergence in fee income among listed city commercial banks in 2025. Against the backdrop of interest-rate liberalization, while a handful of institutions continued to grow on the back of the sector's winner-takes-more dynamics, the industry remained broadly under pressure, with several listed city commercial banks recording declines of around 30% in net fee and commission income. Bank of Chongqing held up relatively well: the decline in its fee income narrowed in 2026, with early signs of stabilization and recovery.

The bank has also made headway in improving the quality of its fee income. In 2025, it ranked first in Chongqing by non-financial corporate bond underwriting volume, market share, and number of issues. It also led locally incorporated financial institutions across western China. In trade finance, cross-border renminbi settlement volume increased by more than 120% year on year. These higher-quality fee income streams, underpinned by stronger service capabilities, are gradually displacing traditional conduit business and emerging as a new growth driver.

Net interest margin, or NIM, rose to 1.39% in 2025 from 1.35% in 2024, an increase of 4 basis points. A breakdown of asset yields and funding costs shows what drove the improvement:

Although the average yield on loans fell by 12 basis points, the average cost of deposits declined by 37 basis points. The larger reduction in funding costs offset downward pressure on asset yields, enabling the bank to deliver a stronger improvement in NIM than the industry average and highlighting more effective management of deposit pricing.

Total assets reached RMB 1.034 trillion at the end of 2025, up 20.67%, taking the bank above the RMB 1 trillion threshold. Expansion continued in 2026: assets rose to RMB 1.108 trillion at the end of March, up 7.20% from year-end, and to RMB 1.109 trillion at the end of June, up 7.27% from end-2025. Market observers see the bank's growth potential at its new scale as evidence that its “Five Highs” operating strategy, centered on ambitious goals, strategic transformation, efficient operations, quality service, and high-quality growth, is gaining traction. Through greater efficiency and higher-value services, Bank of Chongqing has achieved a step-change in scale and built a more differentiated competitive position as it moves toward the ranks of leading listed commercial banks.

As a locally rooted financial institution, Bank of Chongqing has anchored its growth in China's Western Development strategy and achieved a step-change in scale as it grew in tandem with the regional economy.

Outstanding corporate loans rose 30.95% year on year at the end of 2025. Backed by coordinated execution across the organization, credit was directed to national priorities including the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, as well as Chongqing's '33618' modern manufacturing cluster system. The annual report showed a 60% increase in outstanding loans to technology-based enterprises and 40% growth in green lending. Manufacturing loans posted their largest absolute increase and fastest growth in five years. Outstanding financing in support of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor exceeded RMB 55 billion. This lending not only supports the real economy but also embeds the bank more deeply in customers' transaction flows, helping it attract substantial low-cost demand deposits as its balance sheet expands.

2. Risk: Broad-Based Improvement in Forward-Looking Indicators Reinforces Asset Quality

Bank of Chongqing has put its belief that 'risk management creates value' into practice by upgrading its risk controls and steadily reducing risk exposure. At the end of 2025, the non-performing loan ratio fell by 11 basis points year on year to 1.14%. More importantly for investors, forward-looking asset-quality indicators improved in tandem: the special-mention loan ratio and overdue loan ratio declined by 70 basis points and 37 basis points from the start of the year to 1.94% and 1.36%, respectively.

Asset quality improved further in the first quarter of 2026. At the end of March, the non-performing loan ratio fell by another 2 basis points to 1.12%, while the provision coverage ratio rose by 1.02 percentage points from year-end to 246.60%. The continued improvement in these forward-looking indicators, together with steadily rising provision coverage, reduces the risk of potential problem loans migrating into the non-performing category, strengthens the margin of safety, and highlights the bank's capacity to absorb credit risk.

3. Institutional Views: Capital Replenishment Potential and the Case for a Valuation Re-rating

At the end of 2025, the bank's core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio stood at 8.53%. Rapid asset growth has consumed some capital, but the bank's RMB 13 billion convertible bond is now in its conversion period. Chongqing Expressway Group's decision to convert its holdings into shares may be only the beginning.

By the end of March 2026, the bank's core Tier 1 and total capital adequacy ratios had risen to 8.67% and 12.57%, respectively. Institutional estimates suggest that full conversion of the remaining bonds could materially strengthen capital and create room for continued balance-sheet expansion during China's 15th Five-Year Plan period.

After Bank of Chongqing released its annual and first-quarter reports, the market response was broadly positive. Analysts at CITIC Securities, China Merchants Securities, Zhongtai Securities, Guotai Haitong Securities, China Galaxy Securities, and Zheshang Securities published a series of follow-up notes, with ratings ranging from Buy and Overweight to Recommend and Outperform.

The common thread across the reports was that the bank's move beyond RMB 1 trillion in assets was not simply a story of scale; it was also accompanied by tangible progress in lowering funding costs and improving asset quality.

4. Conclusion: A Clear Case for a Return to a More Reasonable Valuation

Taken together, Bank of Chongqing's performance in 2025 and the first half of 2026 points to several positive shifts: assets have crossed RMB 1 trillion, revenue and profit growth have returned to double digits, NIM has bottomed and begun to recover, and risk indicators continue to decline. These stronger fundamentals could increasingly feed through to the bank's market valuation.

According to a June 9 report by BOCOM International, the banking sector was trading at between 0.5 and 0.8 times book value, near the bottom of its valuation range. That has sharpened investor focus on listed banks' share-price performance and market-capitalization management practices.

Changjiang Securities argues that a turning point in fund flows into bank stocks is already in place. Broad-based index funds tracking the CSI 300 recorded net outflows of nearly RMB 1 trillion in the first half of 2026, while active mutual funds' exposure to banks fell to a record low. The brokerage believes the impact of those reductions has now been fully absorbed, and that bank valuations will enter a slow, gradual recovery from the second half of 2026.

With sector NIMs stabilizing and earnings expectations improving, high-quality regional city commercial banks are drawing renewed institutional interest. As confidence in Bank of Chongqing's re-rating case grows, a higher weighting in institutional portfolios, together with the stock's high dividend yield and low valuation, could help the shares move decisively out of undervalued territory and toward a more reasonable valuation.