Chinese banks showed resilience in the first half of 2026, with several major State-owned banks reporting steady growth in both net profit and net interest income in their interim results, released on Friday.

Demonstrating strong earnings momentum, the Bank of China reported a net profit attributable to equity holders of 123.6 billion yuan ($18.4 billion) and net interest income of 236.7 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, representing yearly gains of 5.1 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.

Looking ahead, Zhang Hui, president of the Bank of China, said the institution will focus on key areas such as technology finance, while continuously enhancing the quality and efficiency of its financial services dedicated to the real economy.

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“With strong development momentum, Bank of China will go all out to achieve the goals in the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), vigorously drive high-quality development, and continuously create long-term value,” Zhang added.

During the same period, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China recorded 173.7 billion yuan of net profit attributable to equity holders, up by over 3 percent.

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Meanwhile, Bank of Communications logged a 47.9 billion yuan post-tax net profit attributable to equity holders over the first six months of the year, marking a year-on-year increase of over 4 percent. Meanwhile, its net interest income rose by 8.6 percent to reach 92.6 billion yuan.

Kenny Ng, a strategist at Everbright Securities, said the interest rate environment has been relatively low for an extended period, putting a degree of pressure on the net interest income of Chinese banks.

“However, driven by domestic policies encouraging the banking sector to support the real economy, large-scale lenders have expanded corporate credit delivery,” Ng added. “By offsetting margin compression with higher loan volumes, banks have managed to keep their interest income fairly robust.”

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Zhou Wanfu, executive director and executive vice president of Bank of Communications said that proactive management — including optimizing the asset-liability structure and executing precision pricing strategies — helped stabilize the bank's net interest margin, which nudged up by 2 basis points to 1.23 percent.

“We will continue to implement effective measures, and the net interest margin is expected to maintain a stable and improving trend throughout the year,” Zhou added.

Contact the writer at rayjia@chinadailyhk.com