China Construction Bank Corporation Class H Stock

Distinguished investors, analysts, media friends, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome all of you to China Construction Bank 2026 Interim Results Announcement. I'd like to thank you sincerely for your continued trust, interest and support to CCB.

Today's results announcement. Has two venues in Beijing for shareholders and the public. Joining us in Hong Kong today include Mr. Zhang Yi, President of CCB. Mr. Tang Shuo, Deputy President of CCB, joining us in Beijing included Deputy President, Mr. [indiscernible] , Deputy President, Ms. Han Jing, the Deputy President, Mr. Lei Ming.

We are also joined by our nonexecutive directors, representatives from independent directors as well as the senior colleagues from the head office and also Hong Kong entities. My name is Li Jianjiang, Deputy President of CCB. The interim results of 2026 of CCB were officially released to the public earlier today. We will begin this afternoon with opening remarks from Mr. Tong followed by an open Q&A session.

Now we will invite President Zhang.

Distinguished investors, analysts and media friends, good afternoon. Welcome all of you to CCB 2026 Interim Results Announcement. First, I would like to thank you sincerely for your trust, interest and support to the CCB over the time. Since this year, CCB sticks to Chairman's [indiscernible] spirit of developing China and also executed the principles of the Party Congress and also the Central Government's conferences. And we also uphold the operation philosophies and risk management philosophies. So we emphasize on three abilities, pursue steady growth, improve efficiency and also stick to the high-quality development.

For the first half of 2026, the operation performance reached our expectation with a steady growth and also scale economy and coordinated with the capital also has a very steady growth. The asset AUM also is at RMB 30 trillion. And also the liability side also increased the [indiscernible] Points. [indiscernible] me ratio 22.17% continue to be industry-leading. The structure optimization accelerates transformation momentum.

The asset allocation is precise and efficient. The gross loans to customers is RMB 29.34 trillion. Financial investments, RMB 13.9 trillion, increasing by [ 5.65% ] and it's [indiscernible] respectively, the green and technology-related loans continue to increase, and the loans are also very healthy. We have effective control of liability costs through expansion of low-cost settlement, deposits, integration and optimization of Wealth Management products and deposits and various other management measures.

Net interest income also stands at RMB 115 billion, up 16.3%, increased by 1.63 percentage points Y-o-Y. The efficiency and quality of operations has also increased and strengthened. We maintain very clean control of general expenses, enhanced financial support in customer marketing and technology [indiscernible] Provision coverage ratio is 8.69%. We have a various efficiency ability against risk. We also continue to enhance the balanced short- and long-term capital objectives. by providing capital replenishment, these performance results also laid a solid foundation for sharing our results with shareholders.

We also emphasize our dividend. And we have accumulated cash dividend at RMB 52 billion for the first half. And we also suggest the cash dividend -- interim cash dividend of RMB 2.01 per 10 shares, including tax. The total dividend of is RMB 52.582 billion, dividend payout ratio increased from 30% to 31%. These will be reviewed by the shareholders' meeting.

Now I would like to report the development plan. And for the second half, first, we will strengthen support for the real economy, while enhancing quality and efficiency and financial service. We emphasize on the technology precision and we have realized a double-digit growth in technology lending. We also rely on various measures. We have also issued 87 tranches of technology loans, satisfying various demands for these technology industries at various stages. We also respond to the policy regulated and provide orderly equity financing services for emerging and future industries.

In terms of Green Finance, we also have optimized the Green Financing channel. We have also a Green loan balance of RMB 6.53 trillion, up 8.95%, we underwrote 34 tranches of Green Nonfinancial bonds totaling RMB 15 billion. We also issued green bonds overseas of USD 1 billion, an offshore renminbi bonds of RMB 3 billion. We maintained MSCI AAA ESG rating.

In terms of inclusive finance, we also try to continue to optimize the support to small and micro enterprises. We serve 3.82 million customers of micro and small enterprises. In terms of pension finance, the corporate pension accounts increased by 33%. We also launched the Wellness Living platform covering various scenarios. We also enhance the AUM, especially the Pillar 2 AUM of CCB, it increased by 10.7%, standing at [ RMB 800 billion ].

In terms of Digital Finance, we deployed AI across various scenarios covering marketing, customer service, investment advisory, operation, risk control and corporate management, covering over 600 scenarios. We also enhanced the online platform development. We have personal customers, 592 million and the CNY cost consumption value is also around [ 8 billion ], and it also increased by 13% and at 14.68%. We also emphasized on some key priorities optimizing the smart economy, the new infrastructure related financial services.

We also refined the Shenzen Intelligent Manufacturing and Shenzen strong foundation initiatives by the end of June. We also increased the manufacturing sector loan at RMB 4 trillion up 17.5%. In terms of private enterprises, the loan reached RMB 7.36 trillion, up 9.42%. We also actively supported major national regional development covering Beijing, Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River and GBA, et cetera.

The showroom socially related finance services also increased. We continue to enhance our support to the urban renewal initiatives. We also support the domestic demand expansion and consumption growth, actively implement the interest subsidy policies for the first half. We have issued [indiscernible] residential mortgage is over RMB 300 billion, keeping industry-leading position. We also deepened the integration of financial services for consumer spending scenarios surrounding on the home life and auto life, we continue to enrich our supply chain.

The personal consumer loan balance reached RMB 806 billion, up by 14.96%. Credit card loans is at RMB 934 billion, and the likehood related consumption sectors also exceeded loans also exceeded RMB 1 trillion, covering elderly care, cultural tourism, sports, health care and education facility disperse of more than RMB 1 billion in Government consumption subsidies. We also have a stronger support for high-level opening up, serving the free trade zone and the free trade port. We also facilitate the cross-border quick loan and RMB scenarios.

The International business loan balance reached RMB 2 trillion, up 24.57%. We also provided cross-border quick loans to the small and medium foreign trade enterprises of RMB 53 billion. The loan balance to [indiscernible] Countries and regions reached RMB 73 billion. We also support development of Hainan free trade port and Shanghai International Financial Center, support Hong Kong in consolidating its position as International Financial Center and actively promoted development of offshore renminbi market.

Second, we also maintained a customer-centric approach with continued enhancement of comprehensive service capability. We have further streamlined the 4 integration mechanism, continue to advance the financial banking. The underwriting volume of nonfinancial enterprise debt, financing instrument reached RMB 268 billion, the M&A loan balance reached RMB 287 billion. Equity Investment business also advanced in an orderly manner. The Corporate and Retail Banking business is also enhancing their synergy.

The social city cards and the disbursement customers and acquired the merchant transaction volume also continued to increase. The AUM payroll disbursement customers increased by RMB 663.7 billion, net increase of social security card exceeded [indiscernible] million. We have met the need of domestic and foreign currency and domestic foreign currency indicated accounts increased by 144,200 customers and we have achieved a double-digit growth in international settlement customers and international settlement volume.

Cross-border RMB settlement volume reached RMB 4.25 trillion. Improved group-wide integration efficiency, overseas commercial banking institutions recorded net profit of RMB 9.5 billion, up 21.87% year-on-year. In the first half, overseas branches have recorded net revenue of RMB 9.5 billion and subsidiaries recorded a net profit of RMB 18.2 billion, up 21.87% and 85%.

We have focused on 3 customer groups, government, enterprises and personal customers. We have developed model projects for 12 key ecosystem clusters, including universities, hospitals, social security cards, et cetera. We have seen an additional 792,900 corporate customers, an increase of over 5 million personal customers. Our products are better in meeting customer demand. We have seized the opportunity of diversified wealth management. We focused on customers asset allocated needs. We offer investment advisory services so we can help them manage their wealth long term.

Wealth Management scale exceeded RMB 5.3 trillion. Wealth Management customers added 5.57 million. Private Banking customers and AUM achieved double-digit growth. Security customers for the third-party security custody services of trading settlement funds exceeded 100 million. Asset and custody reached [ 25.45 trillion ].

Thirdly, we strengthened risk and compliance management and further consolidated the foundation for sound development. We improved risk and internal control management system. We focus on the overall risk system problem. So we can establish a smart risk management system. We strengthened our policies so we can respond to the key businesses. We strengthened the penetrative risk management across overseas institutions and subsidiaries. We have strengthened the review of differentiated risks, and we have conducted evaluation management for corporate customers. And we have seen higher quality in new loans, we optimized the asset quality management and NPL disposal mechanism and broaden market-based disposal channels.

NPL is 1.29%, down by 0.02 percentage points with key areas seeing controllable risks. We have adopted us ourself to the rapid change of technology and risk profile so we can establish a risk management platform. And we have developed fundamentals of Chinese economy. But we are very aware of the pressure and challenges in our operation. We will try our best to do a good job in the following areas. We will closely follow national strategic priorities and foster new drivers of transformation and development, advanced the 5 priorities and sees the 2 key tasks and 2 renewals, support major projects under the [indiscernible] Plan and development of the 6 networks, we will fully support the expansion of domestic demand, industrial upgrading and the growth of private micro businesses.

We will strengthen our capability in cross-border capability, and we will enhance our promotion initiatives and reach the bank-wide home living and auto living ecosystems and brand-specific consumption scenarios. We will deepen inclusive livelihood financed to better meet resident's financial needs in housing, education, health care and childcare. And we will work with governance and corporations in meeting we will align loan growth with monetary policy and optimize funding duration and bond investment returns.

Liability business, we will maintain alignment among scale, pricing and quality, further strengthen funding stability initiatives. Intermediary business, we will maintain category-specific policies across the integration of [indiscernible] We will safeguard the bottom line thinking of the worst scenario and strengthened risk and compliance management. we will strengthen our capability in mitigate financial risks and we will focus on key areas and effectively identify and mitigate [indiscernible] Segments can operate in a stable and regulated way.

Ladies and gentlemen. CCB [indiscernible] Of China. So we will return to customers with high-quality financial services and let's work together for a robust and more sustainable future. Thank you.

Thank you, President Zhang. Now we will open the floor for questions. We will alternate questions between Hong Kong and Beijing to allow more analysts.

And Question 1 comes from Hong Kong. -- have recorded very good momentum. What are the drivers behind this robust performance? Looking forward, what's your expectation for the operational revenue profit going forward in this year? President Zhnag will take that question.

Thank you, Mr. Shi CCB seized the opportunity of the 15th 5-year plan, and we seized the opportunity in high-quality integration of business groups. We have seen some achievements in the first half in high-quality development in net profit and net profit attributable to shareholders, up 5.56% and 4.62% year-on-year, respectively, and higher than the first quarter by 1.8 and 1.09 percentage points. Operational revenue is 10.48%. It has been 2 digit growth for 2 consecutive quarters. We have more diversified source of revenue, net interest income and noninterest income have come our 2 drivers.

Our core indicators are very balanced. ROE, ROA, NIM, cost cost revenue ratio and capital adequacy ratio have all kept a very good level. There are 5 reasons. First, we optimize the allocation of asset and liability. We have implemented very proactive and flexible asset liability allocation strategy with 8.46% growth in net interest income, [indiscernible] Percentage. percentage in high-yield assets we have optimized asset portfolio, loan and financial investments have seen higher percentage.

We focused on new productive horses. And integration of finance and governance, personal consumption, personal operational loss have realized 2-digit growth. We optimized the loop of corporate funds. Our demand deposit has seen a very good level in its percentage. We have been very flexible in adapting asset portfolio. Secondly, we promoted the transformation of revenue structure with high growth in noninterest income, we have expanded the source of revenue. Noninterest net noninterest income is up by 16.31% for two reasons: commission fees are stable. We seized the opportunity of Wealth Management, Asset Management so we can improve on customer loyalty with professional services, fund, custody, CTS, these business lines have realized a 2-digit growth.

We seized the opportunity of consumer markets, third-party payment and credit cards have seen stable progress we increased efficiency of settlement services. On the other hand, other noninterest income have maintained good momentum that is attributed to our efforts in asset allocation and improvement in transaction capabilities, equity investment has been performing very well as well. Thirdly, operational management, cost expenses, we have reduced costs and improved efficiency, we give priority to technology and customer marketing. We use the technology and digital tools for corporate operation. And we have strengthened evaluation of expenses, cost/income structure is 22.17%, down by 1.5 percentage points.

We also have various control and the quality of assets is very steady. We have applied a very prudent operation philosophy and principles to -- we -- our ability of risk control continue to be improved. The RMB settlement accounts is standing at RMB 18.91 million, increased by RMB 1.02 million, compared with the end of last year. The personal clients AUM also exceeded RMB 24 trillion, up by RMB 1 trillion. And it has also capped the double-digit growth. The Retail Mobile Banking also increased by 15% in terms of the activity ratio. The International business loan also has a realized a growth of over 20%. All these have laid a solid foundation for our operation in the second half.

Looking ahead, we will continue to emphasize on the 5 chapters. Optimized technology finance system, improve investment banking, wealth management and financial markets transaction ability, enhance the differentiated service ability also improved our opening up of high-quality service.

On the other hand, we should also pursue sustainable growth. we should also upheld the right philosophy and balance our development. We also will improve the net interest income to a better level and also realize a steady growth of non-net interest income. We will continue to improve the linear management and preoperation ability in continue to enhance the risk identification and alarming system.

Thank you, President Zhang. Now I would like to invite questions in Beijing. The lady from the third row on the left.

I'm from China Security Daily, Shuaishuai. We have seen that for the first half of CCB, the loan also you maintained very steady growth. So I want to ask about the loan disbursement aspects. And now the financing structure is changing. So I want to know about the loan strategy for CCB in the future.

So I would like to invite Ms. Han Jing, our VP in Beijing to answer.

So about the loan disbursement, President Zhang has also given very detailed introduction in his overall speech in the beginning, and he has also summarized the key parts in the first question. The end of June, the loan scale stands at RMB 29 trillion, up by RMB 1.5 trillion with an increased level of 5.65%. Loan also takes up 60% of our asset. A very solid foundation for the increase of our revenue and income.

For the optimization, the overall volume is quite optimal. Our balance of customer, retail banking and also corporate banking is very balanced. The corporate loan is over RMB 20 trillion, up by RMB 1.54 trillion compared with last year, is up by 8.2%. The retail loan also is standing at RMB 9.19 trillion, taking up 31.31%, is over 1/3 corporate, 1/3 private. And so it is quite optimal.

And for the second optimization, we also invested in consumption, investment and the premium sectors. What we mean by that? First, we emphasize on the 5-pronged aspects. The loan is also increasing faster than other aspects. For example, tech finance. We are also determined to be the leading bank to invest in tech finance. We also have go-to the manufacturing sector, this exceeded RMB 4 trillion, with a growth rate of 17.95%. The modern service industry and the modern infrastructure loans also have new changes.

We also invest in the consumption for the consumption-related loans. We also are keeping the industry leading position. We also stick to high-quality opening up. We have the [indiscernible] Cross-border direct financing structure is also changing. Actually, the results of our economic structure transformation. It is also the result of the deepened reform of supply chain in the finance business. Next, we will also follow the trend, and we will target at the various demands of the sectors like globalization and more smart related services will also emphasize on the integration of investment and also the foreign and the local currency integration of the group. So we will also diversify financing channels at in different manners.

We will also construct the modern industry system, and we will also try to coordinate with the changing financial markets. And we emphasize on the characteristics of CCB, we will also orient towards the 15th 5-year plan, including the 6 networks, the key areas and key projects. And we will have also responded to a series of incremental policies continue to guarantee the sustained and robust growth of loan disbursement.

In the same time, we will also stick to the operation principle, principle, emphasize on the balanced development of volume and the prices on the basis of prudent risk control so that we can improve the high-quality development.

Now I would like to invite questions from Hong Kong. The lady from the nfourth row on right.

I'm from Phoenix TV. I'm Yang Shuo. We have seen that CCB has a very remarkable results in terms of NIM. So can you further elaborate on that? Apart from the external market factors, what you have done to differentiate yourself and also judge the [indiscernible]

Increased by 1.38%. So on the row, our NIM level is also leading in our industry. We have realized the comprehensive balance of volume price and also structure. That is a result of our economic development momentum and various other external factors. It is a result of our active management internally. We stick to value creation. We dynamically and flexibly enhance the balanced management of assets and liabilities. We also take differentiated measures to improve the -- our NIM level. We also have the two integration and one integration strategy.

First, we optimize the allocation of the major asset class. We -- based on the market trends, we dynamically adjust the asset allocation. For the core asset growth, the growth is exceeding the growth of the group assets by 2.8 percentage points. The balance is standing at 91.6%.

Just now Mr. Han mentioned that the loan takes up over 60% of our assets. So with these two, it takes up 91.9% combined. Second is to optimize the credit and loan maturity structure. By the end of June, for the domestic loans, the loan and mid long-term loan takes up 71%. It increased by 0.05 percentage points. Third, we improved the comprehensive pricing ability. We try to determine the loan interest rate placed on the comprehensive pricing service and also the transaction.

On the liability side, we also implement strategy of control, the high risk, we emphasize our low-cost settlement capital management improve the settlement network optimization and all the new platform development. We also enhanced the physical local bonds capital connection. We'd like to leverage on the major capital to improve the high-quality capital pool. For the first half, the savings deposit balance increased by RMB 54 billion, also have a Y-o-Y increase of RMB 38 billion.

Secondly, we also connect the time deposit capital, improve the optimal circulation of this capital, we also provided other sales of the other Wealth Management products. For the first half, the domestic time deposit interest payout rate is to 1.66%, down by 34 percentage points on a Y-o-Y basis.

Third, we also actively and effectively control the high-cost liability, the interest rate of the other financial organizations deposits decreased by 19 percentage points. For the whole year, we are confident to optimize our active management of these aspects. First, we will balance the total volume. We'll fully integrate into the modern industry system, adapt to the new changes of the market environment and also client needs.

Assets are aligned with market competition. We will take a balanced approach in credit and bond markets. The key is to make sure that cash management and payroll services a settlement fund increased the percentage of high-yield assets.

Fourthly, liability we will focus on lowering costs and optimizing structure agile management is key. We will make sure that we flexibly adjust duration, pace and categories of liabilities. So the interest-bearing assets would be at a reasonable level.

We will take another question from Beijing.

From CICC. I have a question regarding Financial Investment. In the first half, we've seen very good growth in bond investment. Can you please talk about bond investment overall? Now the market is in a low interest rate even. So going forward, how will you take an active approach in this regard?

Mr. Ji from [indiscernible] We have aligned ourselves with the change in social financing structure, so we can coordinate investment transaction and customer services and this will lay a good foundation for strengthening profitability. There are a few aspects. Number one, we strengthened [indiscernible] And efficiency of these assets in the first half, we added over RMB 1 trillion of investment in Technology and Innovation.

Secondly, we've taken an active approach in portfolio management, so we can take our advantage of transaction operations. And CCB has higher importance to bond portfolio. We focus on coupon rate and strengthen transaction in categories or types of bonds, duration and issuance. We will try our best to take advantage of them. In the first half, there were three features. Number one, we seized good time opportunities. In the first half, when the interest rates were on the raise, we implemented long-term allocation of mid- to long-term duration bonds.

Secondly, we seized the opportunity of market volatilities in Q2 when the prices were high through secondary market transactions, we optimized our portfolio structure. Thirdly, we seized the opportunity of refine management, given the yield curve, we flexibly adjust the strategy of investment. So our capability has been enhanced in mitigating risk -- rate risk and profitability.

Thirdly, we leverage on our integrated services. So on the one hand we enhanced income. And on the other hand, it becomes an important driver in operational transformation. So bond underwriting, investment, these are deeply integrated. The [indiscernible] Doubling in the first half and a bond issuance and bond underwriting volume has increased by 174%. We offer allocation and risk management services to customers in China and overseas, so customers can face market risks and volatility in a robust way.

Going forward, we will focus on three areas in bond market businesses. First of all, as a big bank, we will help the government implement policies supporting the demand of recon. Secondly, as a market maker in foreign currency and bond markets, we will provide liquidity. Secondly, we will offer diversified investment vehicles and cross-border platforms. We will enrich transaction strategies, strengthening return and our investment portfolio, strengthening cross-border investment, especially in underwriting tender bonds, we will help Chinese companies going overseas and also foreign companies operating in China.

Thirdly, we will develop a professional team specialized in investment transactions and sales, we will strengthen the use of IT and other technologies strengthening the business capability of our investment and financial business.

Now we will take the question from Hong Kong. The fourth row to my.

[indiscernible] And Personal Finance. How do you look at the asset quality in the second half? How do you enhance risk management? How do you make sure that your stable development momentum can be sustained?

I will take that question. The CCB is committed to coordinated development. We will think of the worst scenario, strengthening the management of credit risks with a better risk management system, we can serve the real economy with high-quality services, asset quality has been stable. We have very good risk mitigation capability. As Mr. Zhang said, as of the end of June 2026. NPL of CCB Bank was 1.29%, down by 0.02 percentage points compared with the end of last year. Provision covered ratio of [indiscernible] up 5.4 percentage points. We have made arrangements in two aspects.

Number one, we will serve the economy, we will take targeted measures in credit finance. We will align our services with the five priorities in national financial policy. We will strengthen technology innovation and investment on the structural and cyclical features of risks, we will optimize our strategy. So the business management and Risk management can be coordinated.

On the other hand, we focus on key areas and strengthen the all cycle management of credit risks, we will focus on the new trends in credit risks, so we can dynamically optimize long-term mechanisms of risk management. In corporate finance, in key regions, key customer groups, key projects, we can manage in different dimensions with pre checks and prewarning capabilities we can form the synergy across the bank. In retail banking, we enhanced the management of corporate credit risks. We will improve efficiency, both online and off-line. We will strengthen will be committed to stable progress so we can strengthen our risk control system, which is smart and proactive. So we can build a very robust risk management foundation for high-quality growth.

Now we will shift back to the Beijing venue. This gentleman in the fifth row on my left.

From People's Daily. Now we have seen the shift of personal deposits. I'd like to ask about the renewal of personal deposits in the first half, what were the new trends and faced with the low interest rate environment, what measures have been taken by CCB?

Mr. Tang will take the question.

I believe this question is of great concern of investors. In this year, CCB is committed to serving the public. We will take different measures in different customer groups, strengthening comprehensive services to high-quality services. In the first half, Personal customers, we have seen a very stable rate of Personal deposit renewal, 90% of them have been renewed. As Mr. Zhang said, there was an increase of RMB 1.04 trillion in AUM. Now we have seen RMB 24 trillion in Personal deposits. Overall, deposits [indiscernible] Life cycle and in different scenarios, we will focus on settlement, investment and financing.

As for settlement, we will focus on business scenarios and customer-based scenarios. So we can put ecosystems, supply chains and customer clusters, we will acquire customers from the stores. For example, enterprises and university campuses, we can acquire customers from social security card and payroll services. Through tiered services, we can expand asset level and make sure that they are deposited in our bank, we will enhance the coverage of products like mobile bank, [indiscernible] .

[indiscernible] Service channel so that the Wealth Management services can benefit more customers in terms of adaptability. We also provided differentiated asset allocation schemes and product services for different customers. By the end of [indiscernible] In terms of professionalism, we also tried -- we also continue to enhance our capability. In terms of financing, centering around various needs of the customers, we continue to enrich the loan product services systems. In terms of consumption, residential housing and operation. We also continue to provide the whole livelihood-related services to the residential customers, improve the compensation loan provision. And also also provide more consumer-related credit kids, connect more scenarios and also balance the risk control needs.

By the end of June, the personal consumption now also stands at [ 7,081,000,000,000 ] with an increase of 14% compared with last year. Looking ahead, we will also continue to have a [indiscernible] policy so that the personal capital can have more leeway. The personal capital will maintain steady growth. The savings deposits will also maintain a very steady growth.

Now next question from Hong Kong. Gentleman on the fifth row on the left.

I'm from Goldman Sachs. I'm Yang Shuo. We can see that the interim intermediary business income is very strong for the half. So I want to know about the fee and commission income. What is the main strategy and also the main direction for the development in this aspect.

So I would like to invite Ms. Han to answer the question.

Thank you for your question. Just as you mentioned, CCB has always a highly emphasized on fee and commission income steady growth. We think that it's a steady growth is also a key benchmark to measure the overall service capability of a commercial bank. Therefore, we also write the overall trend of the capital market and the direct lending. We also transformed from the long intermediary to service intermediary. So the fee and the commercial income is maintaining a leading position in the industry.

The fee income is standing at RMB 68 billion, the income structure is from three aspects. We have three RMB 20 billion. The first RMB 20 billion is that we see the opportunity of the capital market, satisfying the various financing and investment needs of the customer [indiscernible] wealth management [indiscernible] RMB 2.3 trillion with the new increment of RMB 30 trillion -- of RMB 300 billion. The AUM is also over RMB 7.35 trillion.

The capital custody scale is also standing at RMB 24.45 trillion. The third-party custody customers also exceeds RMB 100 million. So all the Other businesses also increased by double digit. This is the first RMB 20 billion.

The second RMB 20 billion is that we actively execute the national consumption stimulation policy about centering around tourism, shopping, entertainment, education and sports and leisure activities. We are serving the 719 million customers. We continue to optimize the products and service experience. The online transaction volume is also standing at 32.85x, with the total volume of over 10 trillion.

The credit card consumption transaction amount is also [ 1.16 trillion ] it's also contributing RMB 20 billion to our fee income. The third RMB 20 billion is that we enhance our professional capability centering around the corporate government and various service needs of these corporate government, we continue to optimize settlements. The cash management treasury development and transaction banking. We continue to optimize the product function and the delivery experience. So the coverage of our customers and also customer experience, have a very obvious improvement. The total settlement is also realizing over RMB 118 million, and it is also has a very obvious improvement with a Y-o-Y increase of 40%. So it is also testifying -- verifying our service ability.

The volume increase also exceeds over 20%. So that it has pushed the overall fee and commission income to reach content of this service. So the overall functions and also value creation ability is also increasing. For the second half, we will continue to satisfy the customer needs, especially the diversified Wealth Management needs, adhering to the service creation value principle. So we have one focus, focus on the wealth preservation and the increase of the customers can to enrich Wealth Management, wealth and also investment in the custody services. We will also respond to the national consumption policy, continue to enrich the scenario development, expand the product services and also the scope.

Third, we will also seize the opportunity of industry. Our customers and in that process, we will realize our own value creation for CCB so that we will continue to consolidate our fee and commission income optimization.

Thank you. Ms. Han. Now I would like to invite questions from Beijing. The lady on the sixth row on the left.

I'm from Financial Times. I'm from here. I also some measures you will have also housing is also included in the major consumption scope, supporting the residents to have better housing needs, and we want to know more about the mortgage and consumption loan strategy for CCB.

Okay. I will invite Mr. Tang to answer the question.

Thank you. Improved consumption [indiscernible] The domestic needs is also one of our key strategy of high-quality development. It also creates [indiscernible] Financial products to expand consumption. First, we will actively execute the policy of a financial coordination we will also try to stimulate the domestic needs and also coordinate the supply chain. For the first half, CCB's subsidy is over RMB 130 billion for the personal consumption loan and credit card payment.

For the second half, we will continue to improve the consumption policy execution. Second, we will also participate in the central government and local government major consumption financial activities, especially centered around tourism and cultural consumption. We also have some unique brands. For example, the home life and auto life platforms continue to expand, the service consumption, commodity consumption and new type consumption.

Third, we will continue to optimize the consumption financial products and also enrich various scenarios, we will base our customer base under our digital operation capability, integrate some new consumption scenarios, new types so that we can cover wider in terms of the personal consumption Credit Cards business and also the the Loan Service System.

Our loan also increased by RMB 12.3 billion for the first half, over 14% in terms of the consumption finance. And you also mentioned about mortgage for residential housing. So given this policy, we know that residential financing is also the traditional advantages business of CCB. We will continue to improve our model for residential development, better serve the residents are essential housing needs and bettering housing needs. We will actively respond to these needs, so that we will have new characteristics for serving the incremental housing market. We will also cater to the new models of the second-hand housing market, improve our mortgage capability.

For the first half, with the warming up of the existing housing transaction, we have maintained very steady growth. Second, we will continue to have integrated comprehensive financial service system for the housing mortgage we will provide whole chain financial service to clients to pursue better housing needs. Based on our home life platform, we will also facilitate the clients to satisfy their consumption in terms of the home appliances, et cetera.

We will also enrich some new financial service models, for example, the village in the urban villages, we will also cater to the needs. We will also have a tailored services for the housing financial services so that various needs of the customers can be satisfied. In the meantime, we can also improve -- facilitate the high-quality development of our urban area. Thank you.

Earlier prior to this meeting. we distributed a notice to collect questions of concern through investor hot lines, and we received some messages on the online platform. Most of the questions were addressed in this meeting. On top of that, some questions were related to capital and dividends. These questions have been addressed as well. Some investors asked online in the first half, your capital adequacy ratio remained high, what are the internal and external capital replenishment measures? What are the measures going forward in 2026, the interim dividend has been raised to 31% in its ratio what was the rationale behind?

Mr. Ji will take the question.

In the first half, capital adequacy ratio is 19.42%, core Tier 1 CAR is 14.24%, which is quite good, and that is attributable to our right approach to operation risk management. We have been committed to the balanced development of risk management volume growth and price adjustment.

There are a few features First of all, we give priority to organic growth. We solidified capital foundation in the first half, net profit RMB 171 billion, up 5.56% Y-o-Y. Excluding interim dividend, the growth was RMB 110 billion. That means [indiscernible] Has been raised by 0.4 percentage points.

Secondly, we have strengthened lean management of capital. We have adopted an approach focusing on economic added value there early on through [indiscernible] . Thirdly, we will make orderly arrangement for issuance of capital vehicle, we will look at when this existing capital vehicles expire and we will look at customers and investment -- investors demand. In the first half, we issued RMB 30 billion of capital bonds without fixed term and RMB 60 billion Tier 2 capital bonds and RMB 60 billion of TLAC bond. So our TLAC as an indicator is very robust in capital and dividend payout, we give priority to investors' returns.

Since IPO the dividends paid amounted to RMB 1.4 trillion in the last 3 years. Every year, we proposed dividends of over RMB 100 billion. Our dividend payout ratio has been over 30% to better return to the investors in the interim dividends 2026, the dividend payout ratio has been revised up to 31%. And this is a final decision, given consideration to be return to customers, return to shareholder and long-term development of the bank. So we will further increase the attractiveness of our dividends. And we have reserved relatively sufficient internal asset and the proposed dividend will be implemented after being approved by the Board.

Going forward, we will be committed to the principles of robustness and approve prudent capital issue capital vehicles in an orderly way and our capital adequacy ratio and the return capital return will maintain at a very optimized level so we can create better value to shareholders.

And the question will come from Beijing.

[indiscernible] Practices in AI by CCB. And what's the progress in technology, security and compliance?

Mr. Lei will take the question.

Artificial intelligence has been always a concern. We've been implementing the decision by the party and the government. Artificial intelligence is a strategic option for high-quality development. We will enhance the deep integration of finance, operational management and artificial intelligence.

First of all, we enhanced our fundamental capabilities. We have 3-year called AI plus. This will provide an action plan for rapidly growing technologies and also [indiscernible] time lines for our annual schedule. We have agent platforms, we support business units to develop agents. We will try to include each and every employee in the development of AI technologies. We will explore business needs and offer one-stop service to make sure that they're implemented. We will create an ecosystem where everyone can contribute regulations, product knowledge case studies and experience can be all included in the enterprise level knowledge base, compliance and security will be involved in the whole process of AI development and application. So we will set up and evaluation system for model data [indiscernible] Human means.

Number one, one of these key studies has to do with customer operation. Bond is the smart assistant to customer services. So we can use this tool to cover the scope of work of the customer managers, monthly active users in the first half were over 40,000 and the interactions were over 90 million. Bond can help our customer manager [indiscernible] Transaction data in 20 minutes. So we don't have to make the customers come to the branches and outlets. And through AI analysis, customer managers can generate reports and the process takes only 2 to 3 hours instead of 2 to 3 days of prior. And we have strengthened our capability in verify the authenticity of customer information. We will take a deeper look at customers' needs so we can promote services in a targeted way covering over 6 million inclusive finance customers.

In Risk Management, we can use AI in customer risk mitigation and identification, so we can strengthen its user in the whole process of granting a loan and improving the loan, and we have developed agents for looking at strategic and structural changes. And with 3 months, we have covered over 90,000 records with AI so we can identify potential risks early on and report them [indiscernible] In operation services, we have improved the AI assistance for bank employees working in outlets in their business. The system will give them heads up on the problems of concern. Of course, they can ask questions and want to just survey.

For example, they can check corporate accounts and they can work remotely. And in this process, we have set up a new model with human beings and AI working together. In research development, AI has become evolved in the whole process from coding to safety to security approval and risk prewarning. It's involved in every step. And the contribution from AI coding the contribution rate increased by 50%, and the adoption rate of AI-generated cases is close to 70%.

And we will make sure that this digital system can understand our language and can read complex documents, so we can get data real time, different roles and different positions will be included in the AI tool. So the use of data is compliant, and they can also meet the demand of employees in their own use going forward with bank and also the building of a strong financial power.

Thank you, Mr. Lei. Dear analysts, dear friends in the interest of time, we will wrap the Q&A session here. The management has responded to the questions in frank and candid way. We hope that their responses can help better understand our business development and business results and the development trends. Here, we will wrap up the whole press conference. If you have further questions, please get in touch with the Board office. Thank you.

Distinguished investors, analysts, media friends ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome all of you to China Construction Bank's 2025 Annual Results Announcement. Thank you very much for your trust, care and support to CCB over the years. This announcement has two venues in Beijing and Hong Kong. We were connected by video. And we will also broadcast to the shareholders and public through the online platform.

Present in Beijing include President of CCB, Mr. Zhang Yi. Mr. Li Jianjiang, Vice President. Those in Hong Kong venue include Mr. Ji Zhihong, VP; Mr. Lei Ming, VP; and CFO, Mr. Sheng Liurong. Those present also include the non-executive directors, independent director representatives, the heads of departments of head office and Hong Kong institutions, et cetera. I am VP, Tang Shuo.

The 2025 annual results of CCB is already made public today. The PowerPoint is also released on our official website for your reference and reading. The announcement will begin by the speech made by President Zhang, then we will have the Q&A session.

Now Mr. Zhang, please.

Distinguished investors, analysts, media friends, welcome all of you to CCB's 2025 annual results announcement. 2025 is concluding year of 14th five-year plan and also the 20th anniversary of CCB's IPO. In the past 20 years, we have been developing with the national development, the capital market, and we use reform to generate new growth, providing stable and long-term values for our shareholders and also the public. Here on behalf of CCB to all the shareholders, to our clients and to the general public, we'd like to thank you all for your support and trust.

Today, we have reviewed and approved the 2025 annual results and made them public. Now I would like to report to you the financial performance, development and the future outlook. In 2025, we stick to Mr. [ Shi's ] philosophy, and we have implemented the -- all the principles in the central government meetings and we have also coordinated and promoted the quality development and quantitative development of -- our overall development. And we have achieved steady developments. The core indicators have all recorded new growth. In terms of asset structure, it continued to optimize. The 5 priorities, manufacturing and infrastructure, loan disbursement has also recorded more than average growth. And we have also recorded a net profit increase of 1.04% at CNY 339 billion, and operating income is also increased by 1.69% YoY. Profit before provisions also increased by 1.7% Y-o-Y. All the indicators have a steady growth. NIM is 1.34%, ROA 0.79%, ROE 10.04% and Capital adequacy ratio 19.69%. Cost-to-income ratio 29.44%. Net interest -- net income ratio is 22.69%. They are all leading in the market. In terms of risk control, it is steady. And the NPL ratio is only 1.31% and we continue to enhance our capacity. The provision coverage ratio is 233.15%.

So based on these quality and quantity development, our capital is also -- asset is also recording -- is also recording growth steadily. Our total assets increased to CNY 45.63 trillion by 12%. Gross loans to customers also increased by 7.47% to CNY 27.77 trillion. Financial investments also increased by 12.9 -- 20% to [ CNY 12.9 trillion ] The liabilities also increased to CNY 41.65 trillion by 12%. The debt deposits also increased by 7%. Our loan continue to support the real economy, and we are also serving the public and the society support the economy to go smoothly.

Based on the annual results, in 2025, we have also sent -- dispatched a total dividend of CNY 106 billion. And we will also have interim dividend for first half of RMB 1.858 per 10 shares. The final dividend for the whole year is RMB 2 per 10 shares, and we continue to enhance our capital capacity. Over the year, we stick to the inherent high-quality development, and we have done the following things. First, we focus on core responsibilities on the primary business to empower the real economy, we have advanced the 5 priorities with scale and quality.

We have the technology, digital, green and inclusive and pension finance. So technology finance, the loans are over RMB 5 trillion, and we have underwriting of sci-tech innovation bonds amounted to RMB 72 billion. In terms of green finance, we issued RMB 6 trillion, up by 20.54%. Green bonds, leasing, investment and funds continue to boom. The MSCI rating maintained at AAA level. In terms of inclusive finance, the loan customers reached 3.69 million. The finance loan balance reached RMB 3.83 trillion. Agriculture-related loans balance reached RMB 3.71 trillion. In terms of pension finance, we actively expanded the application scenarios. There is a solid growth in enterprise and personal pension business. The Pillar 2 or AUM management also grew by 15%. Digital Finance also accelerated. Mobile banking and the CCB lifestyle app users reached 546 million. We developed the home living and auto living service platforms. We also provided a lot of digital economy, advance to core business and the digital economy. It also grew by 18.7% to RMB 891 billion we have multiple channel expansion of credit resources facilitating the domestic and international dual circulation, we actively supported efforts to boost consumption, stabilize the market and expand investment. The personal consumption loans grew 29.41%. Balance is at RMB 6.72 trillion in terms of loan balance to private economy, up by 12%. And the loan balance to manufacturing sector reached RMB 3.52 trillion. Digital supply chain financing provided RMB 1.32 trillion. We also support balanced regional developments such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing area. The loans and deposits also outpaced the bank-wide average. We also continue to strengthen financial service for key areas. We continue to coordinate the cross-border loans and investment and also the -- the loan balance to the project cross-border M&A and also the loan balance to Belt and Road partner countries also reached RMB 55 billion.

We also uphold people-centric finance and enhanced group-wide integrated service. We try to accelerate the transition from a product-driven approach to client-centric mindset. We advanced commercial and banking, investment banking and integration. Underwriting of nonfinancial corporate bonds increased by 85%. M&A loan balance increased by 24%. New equity investment scale also increase -- is 20% higher than -- over the period. We also advanced corporate and retail banking integration. We deepen the ecosystem-based operation of payroll disbursement and social security card service, continue to upgrade and promote the Xinxiaotong payroll service, development of social security card Ecosystem. So that we can connect the corporate and retail banking. We also advanced the domestic and foreign currency operation integration. The international business loan balance is CNY 1.5 trillion, cross-border RMB settlement reached RMB 6.5 trillion. With advanced group-wide integration -- the overseas institutions recorded net profit of RMB 12 billion. The integrated operations subsidiaries recorded net profit of RMB 9.45 billion, up by 31% and 7% Y-o-Y, respectively. We also explored ecosystem plus industry and supply chain plus industry and business clusters service model. We developed 12 enterprise-level models across ecosystem, supported by integrated service throughout the customer journey. And we continue to enhance our customer base. And we also have 785 million customers. So we also recorded double-digit growth.

And for the personal CTS customers, it exceeded 100 million. Assets under custody is CNY 27 trillion. And thirdly, we adopted a systematic approach and strengthened risk and compliance management. With solid foundation for comprehensive risk management, improved 3 lines of defense risk, governance, framework. We optimized the integrated financing management systems and enhanced comprehensive risk panorama. We also strengthened the penetrative risk management across overseas institutions and subsidiaries. We also try to accelerate the upgrading of risk control systems. We also try to look at the management of emerging risks, including model risks, data risks, fraud risks and new product risks. We also try to optimize risk-related processes. The NPL ratio is only 1.31% decreased by 0.03 percentage points. The SML ratio also stands at 1.77%, also decreased on a Y-o-Y basis from the last year. We also strengthened development foundations and continued upgrade operation and management systems.

We promoted the development of operation, data and technology. We promoted AI application in business system. We also emphasized on various risks in terms of the model risks, data and fraud risks. We also continue to enhance internal control, strengthen employee conduct management, case prevention control, anti-money laundering, et cetera. We further enhanced the consumer rights protection framework. So the foundation is more solid. Fourthly, we strengthened development foundation and continued to upgrade the operation and management system, promote the integrated development of operation data and technology. And we also enhanced the foundation. We have a transformation from a centralized core business system to distributed model.

The cloud computing scale increased by 12%. We also have the AI plus technology and framework. Large-scale modeling technology has been applied for 398 application scenarios within the group. We enhanced enterprise-level large-scale operations in many key areas such as tech development, building a more comprehensive cloud system, including an omnichannel optimization mechanism to provide customers with one-stop services, which enhance the efficiency of key operations to enrich an online processing scenario and enhance the automated capabilities of our centralized operations to better serve corporations and the public. In the future, we're going to continue to work in line with the 15th Five-Year plan to find our proper positioning to continue to promote further upgrade and development, continuing to support a new qualitative and high-quality development. In terms of business layout, financing method, customer structure, room for development and server model, these 5 aspects, we're going to consolidate and expand traditional strengths and tap into the potential for high-quality development. In 2026, we're going to do 4 major things. We will continue to serve the national strategy.

We're going to do the 5 priorities of finance business. We are going to anchor ourselves as a leading financial institution of China to continue to enhance our professionalism and comprehensiveness and the integration of our business to strengthen our sustainable business model to continue to support domestic demand to follow up on consumption stimulus policies to offer consumer financial services to have a comprehensive solution covering credit payments, merchant services and value-added offerings to continue to unleash the growth potential of consumer financing to seize opportunities to further expand effective investment to fully expand financial services for infrastructure projects across land, sea, air, digital roads, network bridges and waterways to continue to strengthen our unique advantages here and to accelerate key project progress, we focus on key areas such as ultra-long-term special government bonds, local government special bonds and new policy-based financial instruments to support the binary star and the 2 focuses to support regional banking coordination upgrade and enhancement to support the Hainan Free Trade Port and offshore renminbi market development.

We're going to enhance county-level financial services based and help urban rural development and regional coordination and to enhance our financial services based on local conditions. We are going to continue and commit to advancing high-quality development. Customer operation is all about maintaining a strong focus on enhancing service capabilities. Our asset business focuses both on scale, pricing and risk to maintain a balance among the 3. Our liability business, we're going to maintain a dynamic alignment across scale, pricing and quality. We're going to consolidate our base. And our intermediary business is about maintaining category-specific policies across intelligence, technology, equity and debt financing to enhance our value creation capabilities. Cost management, we will maintain an alignment between cost reduction and efficiency enhancement to dynamically support our growth of our business and to maintain high efficiency.

We're going to continue to commit to upgrading our integrated service model. Depending on our customer needs as they change, we're going to continue to invest in -- investment in commercial bank integration, domestic and foreign currency integration, group-wide integration and corporate and retail banking integration across institutions, across sectors and across markets, we will upgrade and refine the service models across ecosystems, industrial and supply chains and industrial and business clusters. We're going to upgrade and deep integration -- deliver personalized services tailored to individual custom needs across the entire life cycle, we are going to optimize our services, achieving a tailor-made service depending on the customer you are. We further deepened integration under the Binary Stars model. We will have a more product -- in-dev -- product matrix and accompanying purposes to rejuvenate the financial system.

We're going to committed to safeguard the bottom line of risk control. We are going to remember the key of risk management and continue to advance a comprehensive, proactive, intelligent and agile risk control system to improve the working mechanism of the 3 lines of defense to further strengthen the joint risk management between bank and subsidiaries and enhance the look-through management of overseas institutions. We are going to further adopt a more dynamic loan control mechanism. We're going to roll out inclusive loans and continue to assess regional risks. We are going to hold true fast to the bottom line of risk control in order to assess risk in advance and increase our resolution capabilities. We're going to enhance enterprise-wide anti-fraud capabilities as well. We're going to continue to build a better consumer protection system to protect the deep -- promote the deep integration across the entire business process. In 2026, we are going to continue with the political and fundamental nature of our business.

We are going to continue to keep our eye on risk on the business development to continue to serve the development of our nation to prevent financial risk and enhance our international competitiveness. We will have higher commitment, more measures to play the role that we should play in the development of our nation's history to show our value, to work with all partners to open up a new chapter of high-quality development.

Thank you. Thank you, President Zhang. Now we go into Q&A. So this event will have questions alternatively from both the Beijing and Hong Kong venues so that everybody gets a chance to ask question.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the Beijing venue. May I invite the lady on the left on the third row, please.

I am from CCTV. [indiscernible]. So in 2025, you have achieved a stable and fantastic results. Congratulations. In terms of profit growth, we see that there's a positive recovery trend as well. May I ask what's the core drivers behind this good performance in 2025? And what's the outlook for our operations in 2026?

May I invite our President to answer that question.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam [ Wu, ] for that question. In 2025, the CCB's business has continued its steady progress. I should say that the high-quality development has achieved certain results. Our steady foundations are getting better and better. Our total assets have surpassed CNY 54 trillion. Our net profit is CNY 339-plus billion, 1.04% growth. Our profit attributable has grown by 0.99% as well. Our operational revenue has also grown by 1.69% and 1.7%, respectively, profit before provisions. These are the key metrics. In terms of the trend, ever since Q2, our operational income has continued to grow. Our annual profit growth continues to be healthy. The development quality continues to grow and improve. A lot of our assets have been optimized and improved in quality. Amongst our loan to key sectors under the 5 priorities has continued to go up. Our ROA, ROE, our NIM, our capital adequacy ratio, our cost-to-income ratio and noninterest net income ratio, all are very balanced. We continue to lead the pack amongst our peers.

Our income structure continued to be more diverse, 22.69% noninterest net income ratio, which is a year-on-year increase of 3.65%. Our subsidiary contribution from overseas continued to increase. These 2 entities have gone up by 0.98% in terms of their net profit. I would say I attribute our success to the following 5 reasons. Firstly, we are able to stabilize the basic NIM structure and the decline has continued to narrow. In terms of quantity, we have a 9.38%, which is a 1.38% acceleration, primarily because our core asset growth have been faster. The average liability balance net is at 89.13%, which is a year-on-year increase of 0.66%. In terms of price, we continue to lead the pack in terms of our profit.

The decline has decreased by 2 basis points year-on-year, 1.32%, which is a 33 basis point decline in our liabilities for savings, which is a very good foundation for us to continue to improve our business. In terms of the structure, we have increased our investment into mid- to long-term quality efforts. And among nondiscount loans for 1-year plus loans of duration has increased by 0.8%. We continue to consolidate our traditional advantages in this space. Personal consumption loans, personal business loans have achieved double-digit growth for 3 consecutive years. We continue to accelerate to settlement of a low-cost financing. Domestic loans is at 24.34% by proportion, which is still a very good level compared with our peers. Secondly, we offer more in-depth comprehensive services. Noninterest income continued to grow. We continue to create value through service to achieve a win-win situation with our clients.

5.13% growth in the noninterest income front. So we consolidate traditional interest-based income. But on the other hand, we continue to improve our services capabilities, wealth management, asset management and the revenue from all these areas continue to grow steadily, amongst which our wealth management products growth has been faster, more than 25% growth for funds, which we sell and for wealth management is more than 90% growth year-on-year. This is all like higher growth compared with our administrative fees, which is a net growth. We continue to assess the market to improve our investment strategy. Equity-based investments and relevant income revenue has grown by more than 40%. Thirdly, we continue to manage our costs. Fee controls has been working. Our cost ratio is 92.44%, which is a 14 basis point improvement, continued to be a very healthy level, amongst which operational fee increased by [ 1.5%, ] which is lower than our operational income growth. Structurally speaking, we continue to manage our operational costs. We are going to increase our input into key businesses, accelerate digital transformations. Fintech is 3. 61%, which is 0.26% growth of overall in good.

We are going to continue to improve our asset management and risk management. Our asset maintains healthy. NPL is 1.31%, which is a year-on-year decline of 0.33%. Our risk management capability is quite adequate. Provision coverage ratio is 233.15%, which is basically flat year-on-year. We consolidate our customer base, enhancing our overall service capabilities. In terms of quantity, we have expanded our scope of coverage for our clients. For corporate clients, 12 million plus, which is an increase of 1.05 million different clients. Our different unit core clients have also increased by more than 10%, which is both 9.9% growth year-on-year, which is 1% faster growth compared with last year. Personal customers have surpassed 785 million customers. Our number of wealth management clients and private banking clients have both achieved more than 10% growth. Our CTS customers, the total assets has grown assets under custody have increased to more than 27 billion, which is a high 20-something percent double-digit growth.

Our product coverage, our client activity are all looking good. And CTS, our personal customers have achieved double-digit growth. 2025 is the starting year -- 2025 is the starting year of the next 5-year plan period. We are going to continue to work with the government to build a better life for our people, our nation. We are confident and capable that we can achieve long-term sustainable and resilient business performance. We're going to continue to leverage our traditional strengths in liability management business and to in-depth find more service value propositions amongst our clients.

We would have an effective growth of our quality development and a reasonable amount of quantitative development. Thanks to our traditional base, we are able to continue to work on our 5 key priorities. We want to be one of the leading banks in Fintech. There are several consumption stimulus policies to optimize the product supply out there in the market to enhance our international competitiveness to approve of our quality loans.

We were going to develop our service capabilities to better integrate the rural city areas development to continue to build both corporate and commercial bank, domestic and foreign integration and room for development in our customers' development. We're going to empower our business development through finance. In terms of asset liability, we enhance our liabilities greatly to enhance our core loan business to more settlement management and wealth management type of funding, which can effectively help manage our costs. On customer service side, we are going to have a more tier-based approach in customer service to upgrade our customer service model. We use different models to offer a better comprehensive and optimized financial services solution for our customers. And we are going to continue to manage costs and increase efficiency to increase pricing management mechanism to restrict the low-yield assets to further stabilize our overall business.

So that the new momentum can be created. We will also optimize our services and increase their quality. And we will also enhance our stability management continues to enhance linear management. Based on the solid development, we should explore more room for linear management so that the cost effectiveness will be improved. Thirdly, we will have to have a preemptive management and get more quality risk control assisted by AI, improve the comprehensive, proactive and intelligent management system so that we can more actively respond to the risks. We have to stick to the three guarding lines, also enhance the management of the NPL.

Thank you. That's all.

Thank you, Mr. Zhang. Now I would like to invite questions from Hong Kong. The lady -- on the left, the third row.

My question is about loan. We see that in 2025, it has a very steady growth to about 7%. Just spoken, this is the opening year of the 15th five-year plan. So what is the new arrangement compared with 2024 in terms of regional dispatchment and the sectors, how different would it be?

I would like to invite Mr. Zhang to answer the questions.

Thank you, Mr. Lei, for your question. Your first question is about the loan disbursement sectors. In 2025, CCB stick to the real economy service, and we also stick to the strategy of quantity and pricing balance. We also continue to expand our customers and markets, and we also look at the pipeline of the key projects. The loan growth is steady and enjoy high quality. In terms of quantity, we enhanced our capacity to support the real economy. We have 2 highs and 2 advancement. The 2 highs include the growth of 7.47%, up by 1 percentage points than the average of the industry. The second high is the domestic loan is 8% in terms of growth, it is also higher than the CCB average. It also supported the real economy. What is -- what are the 2 advancements?

First, in terms of the residential loan and the retail consumption loan, the disbursement are also leading in the industry. In terms of the retail consumption and also the advancement of some structural arrangement, we continue to support the mandatory needs for residential improvement of the customers. So in terms of residential finance and retail finance, we maintain our competitiveness in -- compared with our peers. We continue to improve the quality, and we have 2 elevation in the key areas and key regions. The loans percentage continue to increase. In 2025, CCB also has the 5 priorities and all the key area and the 5 priorities have recorded double-digit growth. In terms of technology loan, it also exceeded CNY 5 trillion and increased by [ 89%, ] supporting the high-tech company. And also the green finance also increased by CNY 6 trillion. And the inclusive finance also stands at 3.69 million.

We continue to expand our customer base. In terms of pension finance and digital finance, it reached 53 million and is up by 15% and 18%, respectively. We also continue to enhance the manufacturing infrastructure. So the loans to these key sectors have also recorded double-digit growth. And in some key regions like Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, GBA, Chengdu-Chongqing also has maintained a very steady growth.

It's also higher than the average. The Retail finance continued to show its competitiveness. The domestic loans also exceeded CNY 9 trillion, and it also takes up 32% of the total loans. Compared with our peers, we also maintain a leading role. This is a solid support for our steady development. In terms of the total arrangement for 2026, this is the opening year of the 15th Five-Year plan.

So we will try to guarantee a steady growth. In terms of structure, it will be driven by the domestic need. Also, we need to nurture the new quality development. The macro policy is more proactive, and we will support the industry upgrading, the internal needs satisfaction and the internal social welfare services. All these sectors have provided good opportunity for our banks. So we will stick to the strategic goals, guarantee the steady volume and also will be structure oriented. We will respond to the needs and improve the high-quality development of loans disbursement. And we will guarantee steady total volume. We will guarantee a reasonable growth of the total scale. For the new increment of 2026, it will maintain very steady as compared with the previous years. And in terms of the rhythm, we will also get a little bit more energetic, and we will have 2 anchorings. First to the corporate loans.

We will support the modern industrial clusters and systems, realize the new quality development, support the emerging and strategic sectors, especially the high-technology sectors, and we will also continue to dig out the investment needs centering around the 5 priorities and manufacturing and key infrastructures. We will also echo the objectives of 109 items in the 15th 5-year plan in terms of the local government dedicated loans and some new emerging markets loans, we will also provide our support so that we can support the industry transformation. And we will also support the domestic demand consumption and its growth. We will also execute some dedicated projects and make full use of the fiscal policy, support the EV, automobile, the electronic devices and digital devices, consumption and travel, tourism, catering and the hospitality services so that the clients' experience will be elevated.

We will also guarantee the demand of the service industry. And for the property markets, we will also be prudent, support the commercial residential buildings, support the social welfare system reform and enhance our competitiveness in the real estate sector loans. Through these measures, we will also through our efforts, we will continue to maintain our edge in terms of the retail consumption loans.

Thank you, Mr. Zhang. Now I would like to invite a question from Beijing. The lady.

I'm from CICC. I'm Shuaishuai. We noticed that in 2025, the decline of NIMs continued to show very steady momentum. So can you introduce the NIM influences in terms of supply and demand side? And also, what is your outlook for NIM in 2026.

Now I would like to invite our CFO, Mr. Sheng Liurong, to answer the questions.

Thank you Ms. Shuaishuai for your question.

Your question has 2 aspects. In 2025, performance and 2026 outlook of NIM. In 2025, the NIM is 1.34% as reported by Mr. Zhang. Vertically, we can see that in 2025, the NIM narrowed by 2 pp. And in terms of the changes in the 4 quarters, the spread continued to narrow. Horizontally, we compare with our peers. Our NIM is also maintaining a leading position. So the -- also -- have reached a balance in terms of the quantity price and the spread. So for the 2026, three factors will influence the NIM. First, the savings deposits has repricing, and we have completed the repricing. So the loan pressure has been alleviated. Secondly, for the interest rate, for the high interest savings deposits, and it will all -- most of them will be mature. So the interest pressure will be lower. Thanks to -- in 2024, the bank industry has executed a good mechanism. So we have attributed our growth to that aspect. So it has kind of buffered the loan interest influence to NIM.

Thirdly, through very proactive management and structure optimization, we have also decreased the loan interest buffered the negative result of the loan interest decline. And through the management optimization and through cash management and also some payroll services, so we can make better use of our custody capital. So you asked to analyze from the assets and the liability side. In terms of asset side, we continue to improve the quality of investment, mainly the bond investment. So the percentage has been increased. President Zhang also mentioned that our interest capital also increased -- recorded increase. So for the -- some financial investments, its percentage also increased by 1.6%.

So it helps the asset side. And through structural optimization, the negative impact has been offset. In terms of liabilities, so through differentiated layer management, we also reduced some high interest rate savings. And we also have expanded some peer savings so that the high interest savings impact will be reduced. So it also helped to narrow the spread of NIM. For 2026 outlook, we can also -- we can also look through the macro and micro levels. In quarter 4 of 2025, the banking report also mentioned that we need to enhance the system and also strengthen our monitoring, reduce the liability cost of the banks.

In other words, in terms of macro policy, the PBOC on the one hand, pays attention to the market orientation of the interest rates. They also pay attention to the reasonable costs for bank operations. I think that macro trend is quite obvious. From a micro perspective, through improved liability management, active debt management, which is very effective to optimize our asset liability structure to enhance our multi-tiered customer pricing mechanism from the asset side and the liability side, we expect to be able to do more. We believe through our active debt management, we can continue to enhance our quality and efficiency in our operations. Therefore, we are confident, the NIM decline could continue to slow down, and we are confident that our NIM would still compare -- favorably compared with our peers in the future.

Thank you. Thank you to our CFO, Mr. Sheng. Next question comes from the Hong Kong venue. The gentleman on the left from the fourth row, please.

I am Yang Shuo, Goldman Sachs. So you just mentioned that you did pretty well in terms of your asset returns, right? What about bonds? Because in 2025, the scale and yield of your bonds were all very good. What's the highlight of your bond investment philosophy? And secondly, outlook in 2026. In terms of asset allocation strategy and investment returns outlook, can you comment on that, please?

So may I ask Executive VP, Ji Zhihong from Hong Kong venue to answer that question.

Thank you. Thank you for that question, and thank you for paying attention to our performance. So as aforementioned by my colleagues in terms of our CCB investment, actually, both our CFO and our President has mentioned how we have increased our efforts in terms of asset allocation. That way, our books are more resilient. That's a very important factor. I'd like to say 3 things. There's like broader trends in changes in social financing and social lending. And in reference in this new environment, we are going to double down on our efforts of asset allocation. So corporate loans for the first time has surpassed other forms of loans. We are going to continue to support this active financial policy -- active fiscal policy. Government investments is CNY 12.8 trillion annually last year, which is leading the way out there in the market. And secondly, we will comprehensively satisfy domestic and foreign direct lending needs from our clients. The financial loan growth is quite rapid, like green loans, pension loans and tech loans. These are all actively growing area. We continue to participate in Panda-led debt, Panda loans, offshore renminbi markets is continued strengthening, which is in alignment with our overall capability to serve the development of the real economy.

And secondly, we have enhanced active management. That's another thing. In lieu of a complicated market environment, and we have increased our forward-looking aspects of our asset allocation. Right now, our bonds have surpassed CNY 12 trillion in terms of size, which is quite substantial. In order to properly management in terms of our investment strategy, we are more active and nimble. We want to seize opportunities out there in the market. We are able to make much more good use of existing capacity. And we have improved integration of domestic and foreign currency. We have many ways of asset allocation to optimize asset structure to increase the profitability and stability of our assets. Thirdly, we are actively participating in the bond trading market to increase our customer service capability. We, of course, are a big bank, and we actively perform our obligations out there in the market to continue to expand our circle of friends in our trading, which is 127% increase in our size of our circle, more than 50% increased distribution.

And at the same time, through satisfying SMEs and the investment needs of various types of clients, the annual transaction volume has surpassed RMB 100 billion. The centralized settlement business is also a key business of us, which achieved new breakthrough. When foreign investors want to come to China and invest in China, we provide a brand-new, more convenient channel for them to invest in renminbi-denominated assets, and we are developing that. And we also provide a fixed income and other FICC types of services in order to satisfy the various needs of our clients. On your second question, market uncertainty is still quite high at the moment, I'd say, particularly geopolitical factors have impacted the financial market somewhat. What we need to pay attention is how much will the rising energy cost change the risk appetite and expectations of the market at large. Right now, overall, domestic liquidity is very stable. External market, the volatility out there in the foreign markets are actually greater.

Of course, the foreign and domestic market are linked, and we have seen different risk profiles for some types of traditional assets. And in that environment, we are going to continue to maintain our stable, steady value-oriented investment principle. We are going to continue to make sure to tune our strategies appropriately to respond to the market conditions and strike a good balance. So those are the 3 major areas that we are going to work on. The 3 areas are active adapting to changes in daily needs of our clients, including value creation and customer service. And secondly, we know that the yen market, the renminbi market and the opening up of the renminbi market is vast and rapid. Offshore issuance of Dim Sum bonds is very convenient, very convenient these days. And domestically, we also issue permanent perennial debts to continue -- we're going to continue to optimize the coordination of -- across domestic and foreign markets across domestic and foreign currencies. As a flagship institution, right, Hong Kong trading with is Hong Kong, of course, in M&M Asian financial hub, trading is very active here as well. We do recommend international players to actively participate in trading in the Hong Kong markets. Fixed income asset class has shown very positive development trends.

As the yen market and renminbi market continues to expand here in Hong Kong, we have a lot of opportunities. Furthermore, we continue to emphasize on multi-strategy adoption, more active management in order to make sure that the full group in terms of operational management, we are able to do more innovation amidst this volatile environment. The key thing is that we have to have adaptability in face of the markets and clients, particularly managing significant volatility risks. The CCB has to play various roles in this regard. We are a service provider, we are a bank, et cetera. We have to better leverage our foreign and domestic and foreign and domestic currency integration advantages. And Mr. Zhang has brought this up just now.

The targetedness, the diversity and the efficacy of our operational strategies will continue to be enhanced, in particular, our execution must be enhanced to make sure our investments work out. And furthermore, we are going to increase investment into our tech empowerment to build a smart ecosystem. Right now, digitalization has many applications in financial trading, things are developing rapidly, and the CCB is going to continue to invest in developing such capabilities, iterating and evolving our systems, upgrading our systems to make sure that finance and bond investments can continue to develop in a high-quality manner. Thank you very much.

Next question comes from the Beijing venue. The gentlemen on the fifth row on the left, please.

Thank you for this opportunity. I am [indiscernible] from CIS. So my question is as follows. The external environment is very complicated and our country's economic development is facing a structural change as well. But despite that background, in 2025, your NPL ratio has continued steady decline. Your asset scale is also steady. So may I ask what measures have you adopted in terms of risk management? And with respect to future risk assessment, what do you think? Especially in key core areas such as consumer loans.

This question will be addressed by Mr. Li Jianjiang.

Thank you. Thank you for your question. 2025 is the last year of the 14th 5-year period. And we, at the CCB continue to implement the strategies by the central government at the State Economic Reform Council. We're going to continue to focus on resolving and preventing risks as the first priority of our bank. So you have already -- Mr. Zhang has really cited a lot of relevant data up till last year, which is -- NPL ratio is 1.31 ratio, which is 0.03% decline year-on-year, 1.7%, [ 12 bp ] decline of such loans. As you've seen, right, we have improved on these metrics. And at the same time, our risk management capacity is adequate. Our provision coverage ratio is 233.15%, flat year-on-year. So over the past period of time, in face of various risks and challenges, the CCB has continued to think about the bottom line risk management mentality. And we continue to properly coordinate and management preventative risk management measures to make sure our overall risks are under control.

On the one hand, we continue to persist on high-quality development to hold true to our baseline security. We want to actively service the real economy, focusing on 5 priorities to increase our capacity in service of key areas. We are going to continue to do that, and our risk control measures will not weaken as such a result. Therefore, our NPL ratios continue to improve and our asset structure continues to improve. And furthermore, we to defend the risk bottom line resolutely through better risk control measures. We actively agilely built up our risk management systems. We enhanced the synergy across our 3 risk management bottom line mechanisms and integrated the group-wide risk management. And we have started to assess and improve our efforts when it comes to assessing the nature and trends of risks to offer more preventative measures. And over the past period of time, you asked about the increase in risk associated with retail loans. We continue to focus on the changes that need to be made. And with respect to our retail business, we are going to enhance the risk management control measures therein and continue to focus on the key risk hedges in the key processes of our retail loan risk management mechanism. So I could say that over the past year, these measures have worked.

The CCB's personal loans nonperforming ratio has not increased as quickly as it did before. With respect to the current environment, we think risk management in retail loans will still be the key focal point of our work. I believe as our management mechanism, our risk control measures continue to be fine-tuned and implemented better, we are confident that we are able to maintain quality business in our retail business and control the risks therein. The new year would be the first year of the 15th 5-year plan period. It would be a key and pivotal year to accelerate and improve management of a great nation. The CCB will continue to implement the President Xi Jinping's important guidance on the 3 key capabilities we have to continue to do risk management properly to better coordinate developmental security. We will work hard to achieve a good start, steady progress to continue to serve high-quality development and provide a solid foundation.

Thank you, Mr. Li. Next question is from the Hong Kong venue. May I invite the lady on the right third row to ask a question.

Hello. I'm [indiscernible] from Phoenix TV. I'd like to ask right now, the bank industry is accelerating its deployment in AI technology. May I ask what are the key initiatives that CCB has with respect to AI tech? May I ask Executive VP Lei Ming from the Hong Kong venue to respond to that question.

Thank you for the question. This is an important opportunity. The AI technology has provided a lot of opportunity, and we are going to implement a nation strategy to continue to do the AI plus implementation to focus on in-depth application of AI technology across all our business segments. Firstly, we have improved our foundational capability of AI capability. As you know, there's computational power, data and algorithms. In terms of computational power, we reserve enough room for our computation power for further development. We have 5 different data IDC centers with a high computational power clusters. And over the past year, in [indiscernible], our computational power continue to be unleashed. In [indiscernible] and in these 2 new areas, we have advanced IDCs, which are being built and the progress is very smooth. And we also reflect a flop of over CNY 14 billion.

So you can see that 1P is hundreds of billions of FLOPS. So 1 FLOP would be 1.4 billion of computing. So it also increased by 14% compared with 2025. We also have monitored the AI system better in terms of algorithm. So all the advanced models has been adopted like DeepSeek, [indiscernible]. And we also have the coordination of big models and small models. And so the decision-making AI is also being integrated. In terms of the digital model, we also accelerated the nonstructural model and the clearing of the stock data. So we know that the potential of AI depends largely on how linear and how better -- how well you comb the data. So we need to sort out the data in a good way. And we need to also set up a database, including the experience base.

We also introduced over 500 million items of data -- of experience data, and we also advanced the application of different sectors. We also have the people-centric principle, stick to high-quality development in 2 dimensions. And we also proceed the linear management, deeply integrate various data, continue to optimize the whole procedures, emphasize on the service of various smart applications and smart management, smart risk controls. We have constructed over 400 scenarios covering all the 6 areas. So I would like to report the 6 areas. First, in terms of the channel service, the interactive AI, interactive service and AI also completely upgraded our service. We try to have automated identification and very speedy respond through remote dialogue, we improved the quality and efficiency of service. For the employees, we also have assistance to the employees so that the convenience of work is also being elevated. Now we have various scenarios applied. And also, we are leading in the industry. If the employees want to check up some guidelines or principles or write an article or they want to utilize some data or check up the data, they can all rely on AI to help them. In terms of the business, [ Bonder ] is the smart application. [ Bonder ] means help the manager to get enough sales support.

And we have the retail and also inclusive finance. All the managers can be -- can get all the integrated, comprehensive and whole chain assistance. If a retail manager wants to get the customers, they cannot remember too many customers' names. They cannot cover so many customers. It will be already a high level for them to cover 100 of them. But through the smart assistance, they can manage over 20,000 customers. And so the manager can conduct high-quality and high-efficiency service to the clients, providing customized service to the clients. In terms of products, AI is deeply integrated into the product, inclusive the corporate and settlement businesses. In terms of international settlements, we also have the technological breakthrough through over 500 smart judgment points.

We also realized smart analysis, and we have also had the smart extraction of some anti-money laundering points and the cross-border settlement. We know that some cross-border settlements may be -- may come in the form of images or videos or even black and white papers. So we need to extract all these information through smart tools. And the third is about the operation. We comprehensively improved the intelligence level of operation. In terms of question response, AI already reached 99.42%. That means when our clients want to raise questions to the head office, 99% is answered by AI, firstly. And the AUM -- the active user daily is over 100,000. And we also have a dynamic monitoring and a dynamic management of AI. And AI also covered R&D and design. And in terms of coding, it contributed over 62% adoption over 48%. So it helps to improve the efficiency of employees. So the 48 test passing rate is very key.

We know that design system and design demand, whether it is truly useful, especially for a high-frequency transaction scenario of banks, we need to have a good test. So the test is generated by AI. It has greatly improved the efficiency. In terms of risk control, we also have AI plus risk control system. In terms of the licensing, the approval vetting system and approval system, we also use AI. We also rely on the generative AI to have a whole procedure application. In terms of approval level, we recorded a double-digit growth. And in the meantime, the average handling time also decreased by 30%. We also continue to enhance quality control. We highly emphasize on the compliance issue of AI. So -- and we have a multidimensional safety and risk control for AI.

And we also established the big model, the alerts and the red flag raising keywords so that the cybersecurity can be enhanced, the coordination also can be more smooth. We also guarantee the sensing of some sensitive information, the AI tools and also all these AI assistants -- when they are used, the users, the human users will be the gatekeeper so that all the AI application will be fully under control and monitoring of human. And we will also seize the trend and also continue to improve the efficiency and safety of AI adoption. We use technological power to support the high-quality development of our banks and support our financial system enhancement.

Thank you for your question. Now we would like to invite questions from Beijing. Gentlemen, on the right in the fourth.

I'm from [indiscernible] Securities. I'm [indiscernible]. My question is about savings and deposits. First, can you introduce our 2025 savings growth and characteristic. And then in 2026, our estimation is that a lot of the savings will be mature, especially the retail savings. So what is your feeling about it? What about -- how do you feel about the retail savings and any new changes and to respond to the new changes, what are the measures to be taken?

Okay. I will answer the question.

Thank you for your question. I would like to answer the first question first. We always have a people-centric principle, pursue high-quality development. In 2025, we enhanced the steady savings and deposits. The savings growth is steady, the optimal structure and have a deep structure. It continued to grow. By the end of last year, the volume is over CNY 30 trillion, increased by 1.21%, CNY 112 million, guarantee the volume of the capital. And we also have to look at the structure. First, about the retail savings, it has a rapid development. The balance also increased by 1.7 percentage points to [ 4.6%. ] And the corporate savings also increased by 2.66 percentage points. The savings also increased to over CNY 400 billion, and we're maintaining a leading edge in the peers. And we will also balance the quantity and quality. The saving is increasing steadily, and it is on par with the increase of clients. And the ratio is also very steady, also has a slight decrease as compared with 2024. And for the hot topics, the savings are growing steadily.

The volume is over CNY 18 trillion, deposits, nearly CNY 12 trillion. And the maturity level also is increasing. The acceptance level is good. And for the financial assets of the retails, it has some new dynamics flowing into the funds, for example. This momentum may be -- may continue this year. So we would ride on the trend. In 2025, AUM is over CNY 23 trillion, up by CNY 1.4 trillion. For insurance and some -- the precious metal products continue to grow. Next up, we will focus on the bottom logic of wealth management, continue to re-enrich the product structure and design more products for our clients. The third is about how we can guarantee the steady of savings. We will follow the momentum and meet the customer demands, the new changes, optimize the service and promote high-quality development of savings and deposits. For the corporate and retail needs, we have optimized our network like payroll services. Next step, we will also focus on some key products and the scenario coverage, expand the scale of our capital so that the high-quality capital can be maintained. We will also respond to the needs, provide comprehensive one-stop services and serving the corporate and the individual clients well. We will also continue to improve our system, provide a good experience to the clients.

Now I would like to hand over the next question to Hong Kong.

I'm from Hong Kong Commercial Day. I'm [indiscernible]. We noticed that in recent years, the fee income of bank industry is affected by the lowering of fee policy. So the Hong Kong banks are also diversifying the businesses to cope with the challenge. CCB has recorded positive growth of fee income. So we want to know what are the sources of fee income increase? And what about the intermediary business growth opportunities?

Okay. Mr. Sheng Liurong will answer the question. Please.

Well, thank you for that question, Mr. [ Zhang. ] As you've said, ever since 2023 due to a series of fee reduction measures, the growth in that revenue for our bank has faced some challenges. In 2025, overall, our intermediary revenue growth is pretty good. Overall, it has reached 5.31% growth or more than CNY 100 billion. Maintaining the momentum on one hand, we also see 2 positive features. Firstly, is asset-light. Our admin fee revenue accounts for 14.89% of overall fees, which is 0. 49% growth, which is leading the pack. And secondly, the revenue structure continues to be improved. In 2025, our asset management, our wealth management, our custody management service business contribution continues to go up. This means that our new types -- new kinds of intermediary services growth has seen new found momentum. In 2025, this new momentum is quite strong.

You mentioned that in 2025, our intermediary income and what are the highlight areas. There are 3 of the highlights. Firstly, we consolidate our advantage in our traditional strengths. On the one hand, we satisfy the fund money transaction needs for both the private and public clients. And secondly, our traditional bank cards, payment services, settlement services, the revenue on all those fronts continue to grow. Our bank cards, the payment settlement-related revenue has reached more than CNY 57 billion. In other words, more than half of our revenue comes from these sources, which is our base. Third-party payments is more than CNY 22 billion. Credit card, more than CNY 15 billion revenue. To public entities, more than CNY 11 billion, both foreign and domestic currencies. This is the area that you highlighted.

The growth in revenues in these areas continues to -- is about our solid foundations, our rapid networks and our continually improved and reiterated products. And as Mr. Zhang, our President has mentioned, our settlement accounts with public entities have almost reached 18 million different accounts. Several pieces more of data. Our mobile payments, cardholders has reached 493 million, right, almost 500 million. Our network accounts have more than 100 million different card holders and transaction has more than 2 billion transactions annually, right? These are all leading indicators compared with our peers. And secondly, a key area of development would be in 2025, the Chinese capital markets have recovered and the bond markets has also recovered somewhat, and we see opportunities.

So last year, in terms of wealth management and capital asset management, we also recorded positive growth. In terms of wealth management, it is a hard one success. In 2023, we -- actually, the fee income continued to decrease. So we have to enhance our customer base and expand the business scope so that we try to get more income through these measures. And we have intermediary services like selling insurance products, the funds and the precious metal products. So the income is around CNY 8 billion. So this is really a hard one results, and it attributes to the expansion of our customer base and also our services expansion. The wealth management clients also increased by 8 million. It also has a new increment of [ 930,000. ] In terms of the scale, the daily volume is around CNY 5 trillion. It does not include the traditional savings business. So this is about the other wealth management products. The growth is over 15%. In terms of asset management, the revenue is over CNY 15 billion. The AUM is around CNY 6.94 trillion. The growth is over 20%. Another thing worth noting is that wealth management and capital management has a very important link that is custody business.

Last year, the custody income also reached CNY 6.5 billion. The scale is over CNY 37 trillion. It also has a Y-o-Y increase of over CNY 3 trillion. So over the years of exploration, we have wealth management, asset management and custody business, and these 3 priorities have contributed a lot to our business. The third area is to promote our characteristics. Some businesses are leading like some specialty businesses, we have a competitive advantage. There are several aspects. First, we respond to the diversified needs -- financing needs of the customers. So like investment business has also recorded positive growth around CNY 7 billion. And -- we have a unique business called the fair selection business because we are construction bank, we are born for construction. We also prosper for construction. So in terms of infrastructure, we have a licensing that is the engineering consultants. Years ago, the real estate business is transforming and is restructuring. So the consultant business in real estate has declined, but we have transformed the business. In terms of key infrastructure and information infrastructure, we have expanded the business. In terms of the traditional infrastructure, like railway, the airport and some hydraulic projects and the railway businesses.

And for the new emerging sectors like the wind, solar power and also the fiber businesses, and we also expanded to a whole life cycle consultancy and the revenue also reached CNY 2.3 billion last year. And we also had the pension finance and the related business. We serve the clients of the social insurance, the settlement, the payment and also the loan of the residential insurance also are handled by us, and the revenue is also very good. So these are all the contribution of various fee sources. And for the 2026 outlook, I think it has both challenges and opportunities. In terms of challenges, you also mentioned just now that there is a policy of the fee reduction, so it will continue to have its impact. So this is a common challenge faced by the whole banking industry. But for opportunities, there are still a number of them. Just now, President Zhang also mentioned, no matter from the 15th Five-Year plan or the government address, we all emphasize on the importance of internal demands -- domestic demands and consumption is #1 for consumption demand. So we will continue to satisfy the new consumption models. So these will be good opportunity for our settlement business. like the consumption and the credit card segment businesses will continue to be enhanced. The second aspect is the capital market booming. The investment mindset is also enhanced.

So we have the wealth management, asset management and the custody businesses. These are 3 driving forces are very important. And we are also improving the modern system development in terms of stocks, securities, insurance, loans, et cetera. So we have multiple licenses of these different businesses. So in terms of integration of all these businesses, just as mentioned by Mr. Zhang, in terms of financing, the financing of credit, financing of different demands, we can also satisfy our clients. I believe overall, due to many reasons, our intermediary fee revenue can continue to maintain this steady growth trend.

Thank you -- thank you for your response. So recently, we have, of course, made an announcement about today's results announcement event -- and we have collected questions through channels such as our investor hotline e-mail, and we also have a live stream today, and some investors have left comments to interact with today's event. Most of the questions raised by online investors have been answered in previous questions. But A lot of people are still very curious about our 5 priorities. We're going to pick one of those questions.

This question reads Fintech is #1 amongst our 5 priorities. It's also a very important lever for building a modern service industry ecosystem and to cultivate new qualitative productive forces. What have you done in this area of Fintech?

I like Executive VP Lei Ming to answer that question.

With respect to the service area, service area covers nurturing tech talent, innovative tech services, conversion of R&D results and to build and run an ecosystem of technology. And we serve tech firms, tech parks, science parks, technological practitioners, developers, institutions and other entities. Specific work include all of our value-added services across the entire ecosystem of our bank services. I'm going to comment on those. Firstly, we actively develop our integrated service advantage. We are going to break through our industry and create a positive feedback loop. We are going to actively serving great financial [indiscernible] to have solid long-term investments into hard technology using our group capabilities in terms of enterprise innovation, we are accelerating equity financing efforts in early stages of investments. We use investment, equity, insurance, bonds, and we use many diverse tools to empower technological entrepreneurship and industry entrepreneurship.

We continue to develop clusters of innovative fund clusters. Please pay attention to the word clusters, right? We work alongside with in Hubei, Xiamen, Shanghai. In those areas, we work with the nationwide fund entity to establish innovative tech funds. We use this patient capital to nurture tech upgrade and enhancement and steadily promoting the progress of financial asset investment companies and equity pilot schemes. Cumulatively speaking, we have set up 28 pilot funds to enhance the toolkit we have for equity investment. More than 160 issuers investing into more than 180 different tech firms, empowering tech companies and optimize their financial capital structures. Secondly, we use our average advantage as a large bank to empower technological innovation and industry innovation and its integration and synergy. In terms of enterprise innovative capabilities, we have a patent valuation model.

Our technological valuation model has already obtained 3 nation level -- nationwide level authorizations. Our traditional sheets, right, the balance sheets, our profit sheets, our cash flow. In the past, our customer service managers basically look at these 3 things, right, to depend on your creditworthiness. But in order to adapt to the development of Fintech, we have innovatively looked at the fourth sheet, what we call an innovation sheet. And in that sheet, we introduced IP innovative capabilities and information pertaining to the founder of that tech firm to quantify and digitalize and to help more potential tech innovators to access funds and finance. And when it comes to enriching our financial products offerings, we have more convenience, conversion loans, tech innovation loans, we have a lot of special products, which effectively satisfy the differentiated needs of these tech firms across different phases. As you know, that tech firms grow very rapidly, but in the start-up phase, in the growth phase and the mature phase, they need different services in both scale and variety.

So therefore, throughout their entire life cycle, we must provide them with a basket of financial services, particularly for smaller micro firms. We have [indiscernible]. These are new specialized products, which has given out more than CNY 160 billion worth of loans year-on-year growth rate of more than 50%. We have CNY 5.25 trillion worth of loans to tech firms serving more than 300,000 different firms leading the way across the industry. Thirdly, in our work, we continue to focus on comprehensively building a team in tech and banking to service the nation's strategic development, focus on Beijing, the Greater Beijing, the Greater Shanghai area and the Greater Bay Area to serve the construction of these tech clusters, innovative clusters. Wuhan, [ Xian and Xin Cheng, ] these new innovative areas are also areas where we focus on providing more support on. We have a 5-tier interlinked. So at the headquarter levels, branches, Tier 2 branches and even our frontline branches.

At the headquarters, we have our innovative department, tech department to focus on our -- we have in several major key areas, we have innovative centers managed directly by the headquarters. In some key Tier 2 branches, we have set up a direct of the operated tech center. These centers can better serve more local clients. And we also have closed quarter services available. And throughout the group, we have enhanced the nurturing of a professional team to actively train people who knows finance, who knows tech, who knows the industry. We want these -- to train these talents to support our future endeavors.

In the future, our bank would continue to promote high-quality development of the entire Fintech ecosystem. We want to continue our quality traditions and to convert those in this new era as are part of the important forces and important implementations in serving our nationwide strategy to become an advanced and great nation in terms of tech and other areas.

Thank you. We only have time for 1 more question. May I ask the gentleman at the very far right to the back.

Thank you. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to ask this question. I'm [ Lijun ] from GF Securities Company. I'd like to ask a question about personal consumption loans. Recently, the Government has launched quite a lot of stimulus policies. The recent discount loans have been widened in scale and the barrier of entry has been lowered as well. May I ask what's the growth of possible consumption loan at CCB and what are the applications looking like? And furthermore, when it comes to helping stimulate domestic consumption, what more can CCB do?

Thank you for the question. Allow me to answer -- to answer that question. So the CCB continues to implement the strategical initiative of stimulating domestic demand and personal consumption to benefit the public and continue to promote these initiatives to participate in the major initiatives by the Chinese government to continue to provide more fiscal support and financial support for SMEs and personal loans to satisfy the many different consumption needs of our nation. Personal needs, personal credit card development indicators continue to be healthy. We effectively are able to stimulate and help financing such consumption behavior. The total balance have reached CNY 620-plus billion, which is an increase of CNY 115 billion, which is more than CNY 100 billion growth for 3 consecutive years. The balance and growth is all leads our industry peers. Ever since the implementation of this optimization, we continue to ramp up our advertisement on these discount loans.

We offer discounts wherever we have to lower the spending and consumption costs of our customers. We have 630,000-plus customers and provide discount loans for more than 18 million different transactions. We have done 3 things primarily. Firstly, we actively promote collaboration between bank and businesses to engage in synergistic efforts. We work with commercial 9 commerce borough departments to roll out a spring festival initiative. We have specifically themed consumption stimulus activity to stimulate consumption and more than 25,000 businesses participate, reaching 0.75 million customers with a ratio of 2.91, 18.5% growth and 21.3% growth in consumption and consumption loans throughout the spring festival period. We continue to roll out the basket of policies of stimulating domestic demand to continue to build out more personal loans, loans for relevant entities and credit card loans. In terms of stimulating personal consumption, we still lead amongst our peers.

We continue to handle more subsidy issuance by the government fiscal department, a lot of old for new policies for home appliances and other things. And last year, in 331 cities, we gave out CNY 20-plus billion worth of subsidies for the government, driving CNY 180-plus billion worth of consumption. This year, we provide systematic support and actively enhance the efficiency of these events. Thirdly, we focus on key consumption areas and to support financial innovation. We want to enhance the integration capability of our service spending, new types of spending, personal consumption type of model, and we want to adopt a new consumption model. We want new financial services to merge into new scenarios and merge with new forms of businesses. And at CCBs [indiscernible] and our lifestyle app, we built a lifestyle platform, consolidating resources to provide our customers with relevant loans such as upgrading, renovation, buying a car, buying houses. We have a lot of one-stop service and financing solutions.

The next step, we're going to continue to work along the main line of stimulating domestic consumption to further leverage our own strong digitalization capabilities to further work alongside in tandem with the government to enhance the quality and efficacy of domestic consumption stimulation policies to further contribute to society.

Okay. That's the Q&A session for today. I'd like to thank everybody's participation. Our management have engaged in a frank professional in-depth communication with respect to questions on everybody's minds. I hope that helped everybody better understand CCB's strategic measures, our performance and our development trends. We have always cared about management of our market value and investor returns. We have already established the CCB Holdings Limited market value management scheme, and we have relevant provisions and principles to govern the work relevant in the management of our market value. Up to late 2025, our market cap has reached USD 265 billion, which is a 25% increase compared with late 2024. We will continue to promote our high-quality development to continue to enhance value creation capabilities.

We will continue to use steady cash dividends to thank our investors to enhance our information disclosure and IR management to continue to promote our investment value to the market and actively implement our market value management mechanism. That's basically the content for today's event. If you have any other questions and queries, please feel free to contact us at our IR team at our Board office. Finally, I wish everybody good day.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]