Respected investors, analysts, and media friends, good afternoon. Welcome to the ICBC 2025 annual results presentation. I'm Dong Jianjun, representing ICBC. Our 2025 annual results announcement has been published online. We sincerely appreciate global shareholders' recognition of ICBC's investment value. ICBC consistently prioritizes investor and media relations as well as market value management, maintaining proactive communication with global stakeholders. Today's presentation is hosted in a hybrid format on-site in Beijing and Hong Kong with global live streaming.
Allow me to introduce ICBC senior management and attendees. In Beijing, we have President Liu Jun, Vice President Yao Mingde, Board Secretary Tian Fenglin. In Hong Kong, we have Vice President Mr. Wang Jingwu, Vice President Mr. Zhao Guidong . Also present are Director Madam Cao Liqun, Mr. Dong Yang, Madam Zhong Mantao, Mr. Doctor Wu, Mr. Chen Guanting, Mr. Li Weiping. Now, we'll invite Board Secretary Tian Fenglin to present ICBC's 2025 annual results.
Dear investors, analysts, and media friends, good afternoon. Welcome to ICBC 2025 annual results presentation. Thank you for your continuing attention and support. I will report on ICBC's operation performance in 2025. In 2025, ICBC successfully concluded its 14th Five-Year Plan, guided by its Five Transformations pathway, intelligent risk control, modernized structure, digital capabilities, integrated services, and ecosystem development. The bank enhanced its value creation, market competitiveness, influence, and risk management. By supporting economic recovery, ICBC achieved high-quality development, delivering a benchmark performance as a leading bank. First, steady progress in performance with enhanced resilience. By end of last year, ICBC total assets exceeded RMB 53 trillion. Customer loans surpasses RMB 30 trillion, up RMB 2.13 trillion YoY. Investments reached RMB 16.91 trillion, and customer deposits exceeded RMB 37 trillion, up RMB 2.5 trillion YoY on maintaining industrial leadership.
Operating income rose 1.9% YoY to RMB 800 billion, with net fee and commission income at RMB 111 billion, up by 1.6% YoY. Pre-provision profits grew by 2% YoY, and net profit reached RMB 370 billion, up by 1% YoY. The loans stood at 1.28% with narrowing declines. CIR at 18.76%, and provision coverage ratio 213.6% reflect the robust risk resilience. Based on strong performance, ICBC plans a total cash dividends of RMB 110.6 billion for 2025, including interim dividend of RMB 50 billion. Following corporate governance procedures, a final dividend of RMB 60 billion will be distributed.
Based on average annual share prices, A-share and H-share dividend yield reached 4.22% and 5.99% respectively. Sustainable shareholder return demonstrate effectiveness of ICBC market value management measures. Second, stable asset liability growth with improved service quality. Customer loans, bond investments, and deposits grew by 7.5%, 19.6%, and 7.1% YoY respectively. Credit structure fully optimized. Our corporate loans rose by 7.8% YoY with accelerated growth in loans to key national strategies, major projects, and underdeveloped sectors. Retail transformation advanced rapidly. Personal business loans up by 15% and customer loans up by 18.5%. The bank proactively captured market opportunities by deepening its five key areas. Technology finance, so tech loans hit RMB 6 trillion.
Green loans reached RMB 6.7 trillion, ranking number one in the industry. Inclusive loans total RMB 3.6 trillion. Growth rate was 22.8%. Pension assets under management hit RMB 5.9 trillion. Loans to core digital economy industry exceeded RMB 1 trillion. Third, accelerated five transformations initiative reform momentum. Last year, ICBC strengthened our capabilities through reform, aligning with the financial sector's theme of preventing risks, strengthening regulation, and promoting high-quality development. The five transformations drove new progress in high-quality development and security. In intelligent risk control, we enhanced the comprehensive risk management system with holistic oversight, proactive prevention, and intelligent control. Strengthened the nine plus X risk framework and the tripartite collaboration among risk committees, officers, and departments. The enterprise-wide intelligent risk control platform, the ICBC e-Security, covered all branches.
By end of last year, the NPL ratio stood at 1.31%, down three BPs YoY. The special mention loans fell to 1.95%, down seven BPs YoY. Provision coverage remains robust at 213.97%. In terms of modernized structure, we supported national strategies, key sectors, and underdeveloped areas. Manufacturing loans reached RMB 5.24 trillion. Medium- and long-term loans RMB 2.38 trillion. Equipment operation loans exceeded RMB 150 billion. Corporate RMB settlements volume hit RMB 2,248 trillion. Trade finance totaled RMB 1 trillion. The merchant acquiring volume reached RMB 2.85 trillion. Seizing RMB international opportunities, ICBC became Turkey's RMB clearing bank, expanding its global clearing network to 12 centers.
Cross-border RMB settlements grew 8% YoY to RMB 6.3 trillion. RMB global payment now serve 44 countries and regions, up by 23% YoY. Digital and intelligent capabilities around digital ICBC initiatives. Personal mobile banking users hit 630 million. The MAU was 290 million. Corporate internet banking served 18.94 million clients. Monthly active users, 8.36 million, both leading the industry. AI wealth assistant, ICBC AI, was launched for personal services. Over 500 AI applications were deployed across 30+ business areas, boosting transaction automation to 96%. Integrated services provided comprehensive financial solution across clients' lifecycles. ICBC Investment established 48 AIC equity funds, committed capital of RMB a hundred and eight billion. Ranking number one in the industry. The M&A loan growth surged 37%.
Led pioneering Panda bond insurance for U.S. and U.K. firms. Maintained number one position in asset custody and RMB FX market making. ICBC Global Treasury served 15,000, 15,500 corporates, grew by 24 YoY. The personal AUM exceeded CNY 25 trillion. The ecosystem development deepened GBC Plus ecosystem. Corporate clients reached 14.75 million. Retail clients hit 780 million. Payroll disbursement volume exceeded CNY 6 trillion, leading in scale and growth. Integrated urban and rural services and mobile banking empowered ecosystem synergy. ESG governance and disclosure frameworks were also further enhanced.
We also deepened the infrastructure of our financial services. We also realized the empowerment between ecosystem and our ESG governance. An outlook for 2026. As the 15th Five-Year Plan begins, ICBC will anchor new goals, advance steadily and prioritize quality. The bank will deepen its five transformations, balancing progress with stability to deliver sustainable value for global shareholders. Thank you.
Thanks for Mr. Tian's introduction. Let's enter the Q&A session. To accommodate more questions, we request each participant to ask one question only. Please state your name and your institution before speaking. The first question comes from Beijing meeting room. The first row, lady, please. Question one.
Congratulations to the ICBC on sustaining robust growth amid complex changes. Did ICBC achieve fundamental shifts in performance? What were the standout achievements for 2026? What are ICBC strategic priorities? How do you project full year revenue net profit?
This is President Liu speaking. We believe that 2025 marked a successful culmination of 14th Five-Year Plan. ICBC navigated changes through structural optimization, renewed growth driver, advancing its five transformation. We continue to improving our indicators. We didn't stop pursuing the profitabilities. We have delivered a very good growth curve among challenges. Investors pay attention to our asset quality and our management of the non-performing loans. I will introduce in three aspects. The first is that you can see our growing resilience and profitability.
Our fee-based income and four-quarter profit metrics achieved positive growth despite sector-wide pressures. The stabilized interest margin, the net interest income served as anchor with net interest margin contraction narrowing, continued to narrow. In the structure, China's economy is also stabilizing. Although there is a narrowing in our number, but we can see our margin has declines. The fee-based income grew by 1.4% and makes great contribution to our operating income. We can see it also adds to the sustainability of our profitabilities.
We can also see our asset has exceeded RMB 53 trillion. RMB has rose 8.1% to 28 trillion. The RMB bond investments rose by 2.5 trillion, making record high. We also optimize our structures, focus on our five transformations and the five priorities. Our loan balance ratio was 67%, up by 3.6 percentage points. We continue to serve real economy. Thirdly, we will look at our asset quality. The NPL ratio was 1.31%, down by 0.03 percentage point. The provision coverage was 213.6%. If you continue to follow ICBC's operation, you can see that we have a very large increase in our provision ratio.
We create more room for our business development and also to dilute the impact coming from the cyclical pressure. We also continue to strengthen our disposal of the risks. We have a good asset quality and prudent risk appetite, which also have built a very solid foundation for our long-term development. 2025 A-share price rose 14.6%, and H-share price rose 20.7%. Our cash dividends yield and our A-share yields rank top tier in the market. We maintain our position as highest cash dividend paying A-share listed company. Looking to 2026, first, we continue to do well in the financial services to build a world-class bank. We have the standards for the world-class bank. We do not define our own standard.
Growing on our balance sheet, how can we realize the goal of becoming the world-class bank? My understanding is that if we still focus very much on the credit business, then we still lagging behind the goal of becoming world-class. It require us to build stronger our financial services, to blaze a trail of our own in providing better financial services, to focus more on the technology-driven financial service. Finance is the bloodline of the bank. If we cannot provide enough finances to the real economy, then we didn't leverage all of our strengths. We should combine the scale and also our services, and to provide better services in all our overseas markets. Our first measure is to build stronger international operation.
We integrate the full life cycle financial services, smart services, and focus on the technological innovation and strengthen the commercial banking, investment banking, clearing banking services to provide a comprehensive financial solutions to our customers. Continue to bring more value creation. If you look at the internationally strong banks, that they rely less on the credit business and rely more on the financial services, and a lot of income comes from financial services, and, thus their market value is higher than us. So ICBC will try to combine our credit business with the financial services and try to balance well the two proportions and to be strong on both legs. Second, we'll also build a comprehensive service new engine. ICBC, as a large commercial bank, will also balance well the both domestic and international markets.
We'll rely on our strengths of international network, continue to mobilize resources and accessing more markets and to find our indigenous driver to provide more RMB product, provide all-around business service centered on RMB. Continue to help the internationalization of RMB in terms of progressing. From the 1990s to now, when we talk about the internationalization of our financial institutions, we talked a lot about the foreign exchange business. If in the 1990s, if they have more overseas institutions, if they can provide more foreign exchange business, that means it has higher internationalization level. What I wanna say here is, if we take a closer look, take a second thought when we talk about the global strategy, it has to be the globalization of RMB.
Our ICBC is the biggest market maker here, and we are strong in the RMB business. Going forward, we will become this cornerstone in building strong the RMB business. Certainly, we will continue to build these digitalized drivers. We're strong in technologies. We build a lot of systems which are also iterating and to power all of our business. We also pay attention to the application of technologies, the new technologies, but the new technologies has to be tested before. If the technology is not safe, we do not dare to use the technologies in our bank because the data security, the privacy security of our customers is our top priority. If we apply technologies to our system, we'll first do the safety check.
We also want to make commitment to the market that we will study all of the new technologies and to conduct the safety checks and to use the safe and also cutting-edge technologies to serve the real economy, to serve the Chinese people. As you all know that the current situation is ever-changing and very complicated. 2026 is a year of deliveries. ICBC has achieved good results in the past two years. We are also confident to provide a good results to you, and we also hope that the markets can have more confidence in us. Thank you.
Thank you, President Wang. May we proceed with our Q&A session.
First of all, thank you for this opportunity. I'm from Goldman Sachs. We're concerned about the asset quality. In recent years, ICBC's asset quality has maintained a stable and improving trend. Could you provide an overview of the overall situation with the focus on the latest asset quality classifications and personal credit, as well as future trends?
Thank you. I'd like to ask Deputy President Mr. Lai Ching to answer this question.
Thank you for your question, and we appreciate long-term support and trust from our investors. In recent years, ICBC has consistently balanced a high-quality development with robust risk management, prioritizing risk prevention as a core principle. Adhering to a steady and progressive approach, we have maintained stable and improving asset quality. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the group's NPL ratio has consistently improved by at least two BPs annually. By the end of 2025, the group's NPL ratio stood at 1.31%, a 30 BPs decline year-on-year, marking a successful conclusion to our asset quality targets for the 14th Five-Year Plan.
On inclusive personal loans, while asset quality pressures have risen in the segment, a trend seen across the industry, ICBC has proactively managed risks, ensuring overall controllability and adequate provisioning. In the area of inclusive finance, ICBC has earnestly implemented this national strategy, comprehensively advancing the major task of inclusive finance by vigorously supporting the allocation of resources to the real economy, enhancing services for key customer segments, expanding the digital inclusive product portfolio, strengthening operational support, improving the integrated service system, and solidifying management foundation.
ICBC has continuously expanded the coverage, accessibility, and satisfaction of inclusive financial services while maintaining healthy and sustainable development. Regarding the asset quality that concerns everyone, ICBC has consistently fortified the risk management foundation for inclusive loans in recent years. First, it combined digital risk control with expert lead lending, continuously optimizing risk management strategies and mechanisms. Second, it employs digital and intelligent means to enhance the foresight of risk management and the precision of risk monitoring and early warning. Third, it proactively identifies external risk characteristics and methodologies and strengthens collateral management. Fourth, it takes multiple measures to improve the resolution of potential risks and the management efficiency of NPL, non-performing assets in inclusive model. These risk control measures have laid a solid foundation for ICBC to maintain peer comparable asset quality in inclusive loans. Looking ahead, we're confident that the asset quality of inclusive loans will gradually stabilize.
Externally, the 14th Five-Year Plan period is a critical phase for China to build a past achievement and assert fundamental momentum. Against the backdrop of a consolidating and improving macroeconomic environment, the market foundation for inclusive loans will continue to strengthen. Internally, after years of rapid development, the professional capabilities of ICBC's inclusive finance teams have significantly improved, and digital, intelligent, and centralized risk control mechanisms have been continuously refined. These internal and external advantages will support ICBC in delivering high quality inclusive financial services. In terms of personal loans, ICBC has earnestly implemented the national strategy, focusing on its core responsibility and actively aligning with the existing and new policies. It has consistently enhanced the market competitiveness, value creation, and the risk management capabilities of its personal loan business.
In terms of the development, ICBC has strengthened volume cost profit management, continuously fostering sustainable growth momentum to achieve both qualitative improvements and reasonable quantitative growth. Specifically, first, it analyzes the development trends of the real estate market and implements national policies on building a normal real estate development, prioritizing quality housing and stabilizing the real estate market. Second, it emphasizes policies supporting livelihoods and rural financial service models, and increases consumer credit supply to stimulate diverse and differentiated consumption potential. Third, it addresses gaps in financial services for the real economy, improving service quality in rural, agricultural, and commercial sectors. The coordinated implementation of these measures has driven the high-quality development of ICBC's personal loan business, which was awarded Best Consumer Credit Bank in China by Global Finance in 2025. Regarding asset quality, ICBC's personal loans has historically maintained strong performance.
However, in recent years, due to economic transformation, real estate market adjustments, and temporary supply demand imbalances, our NPL ratio has entered a short-term upward trend, aligning with industry-wide patterns. However, China's economic fundamentals remain stable, resilient, and full of potential, with long-term positive condition. In 2025, multiple regulatory authorities, including NFRA, the People's Bank of China, the Financial Regulator, the Ministry of Finance introduced a policy to boost consumption, such as subsidies for purchasing of consumer goods and preferential interest discounts for personal loans. The 15th Five-Year Plan outlines vigorously stimulating consumption, and for the first time includes significantly raising the household consumption rate as a key socioeconomic development goal. As these policies take effect and their benefits are realized, the market foundation for personal loan will improve, and asset quality will return to reasonable level.
In response to market changes, ICBC adjusted our internal structure in early 2026 by establishing a personal credit business department, further enhancing centralized and professional operations. Simultaneously, we strengthened digital and intelligent capabilities, diversified product innovation, and supply in personal consumption and business financing, balanced development and security, and proactively addressed risks while improving non-performing asset disposal. Through the joint efforts of its three lines of defense, the upward trend in personal loan deterioration has slowed. ICBC will always uphold high-quality risk control as a constant to adapt to market changes, ensuring stable asset quality across the group and injecting financial resilience into the high-quality development of the world economy. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The question comes from the Hong Kong meeting room. Please.
Thank you for the opportunity. I'm with UBS. First, I want to congratulate ICBC on achieving such good results in a complex environment. My question is about the NIM. President Liu also mentioned last year's decline in NIM, low comparing to 2024. What are the current pricing trends for corporate and retail loans? How do you project NIM trajectory in 2026? And when might an inflection point occur?
Okay. This question goes to President Yao. Vice President Yao, the floor is yours.
Thank you for your questions. You have two questions. I will first answer your first question about the pricing trend. We project that the NIM will continue. The pricing will continue to go down, but the pace will significantly moderate. The latest LPR adjustments in May 2025 occurred nearly a year ago, and this repricing effect has been largely digested. The NIM downward is stabilizing. The corporate loans, residential mortgages, and individual business loans shows early signs of stabilization. See, from the first two months of 2026, the NIM, loans growth declined by two BPs year-over-year, a notable improvement from the 20 BPs year-over-year drops. The potential LPR cuts in 2026 may continue to pressure loan yields downward. Your second question is about the 2026 NIM outlook. We project there will be an L-shaped trajectory.
In 2025, the NIM performance, 2025 NIM was 1.28%, down by 14 basis points year-over-year. The rate of decline narrowed by five basis points versus 2024. Although it's the NIM is going down, but the decline is narrowed. If we put aside the LPR cuts, we believe that there will be an inflection point this year. Assuming no significant additional LPR deposit rate cuts, the NIM decline will narrow further, and the interest cover projected to achieve positive year-over-year growth. About the four pillar driving NIM stabilization, the first is adaptive assets liability portfolio. We have enhanced sensitivity management to offset rate pressures, along with the PBOC's symmetric monetary policy balancing real economy support and bank health, and second, liability cost optimization.
The funding diversification will leverage leadership in custody and settlement services to attract low-cost deposits. For the pricing discipline, we have strict enforcement of deposit rate forward guidance and interbank pricing guidelines. We're sustaining the volume price synergy and deposit growth. As a lot of high-cost time deposits mature, we also have pressure relief. The lagged benefits of 25 deposit rate cuts is materializing. Strategic long-term asset allocation for loan growth, the customer loans grew by 7.5% in 2025 above system average. The bond investment surged up by 19.6% in 2025 versus system wide 17.9% growth. The trade-off. For the trade-off analysis, the short term, lower yields on new bonds pressure NIM. The funding pricing cycles is larger than the bond cycles. The long term with those high-quality assets reserves sufficient profitability.
In the short term, it will have impact on the NIM, and in the long term, it will have contribution to our value creation and enforce global expansion synergy. For the overseas growth, we're continuing to open up to the international market and to serve well the global strategy of R&D growing global. The international assets of ICBC was CNY 491.6 billion, up by 12.4% YoY, outpaced group average of 9.5%. For the NIM impact, in the short term, NIM compression continues amidst global rate cuts. For strategic value, accelerates R&D internationalization, enhanced group synergy. We believe going forward, ICBC will adhere to its dual focus on industrial expertise and commercial innovation. We'll continue to optimize asset allocation and credit deployment. Thank you for your question.
Now we will throw it back to Hong Kong.
The first question.
Thank you for the opportunity. I'm from Hong Kong Commercial Daily. Last year's results conference management presented the achievements of digital ICBC construction. I noticed that ICBC has since rebranded it as Smart ICBC, suggesting a stronger emphasis on intelligence. Has ICBC upgraded its strategy in the fintech sector? What were the key achievements in artificial intelligence application in 2025, and what are your major plans for 2026?
I'll ask the Vice President, Mr. Zhao Guidong , to answer this question.
Thank you for your question. Well, I'll answer this question from three perspectives. First, regarding the development of Smart ICBC. ICBC adheres to Party leadership, adheres to the national strategy and drive forward the five transformations, consistently positioning itself at the forefront of financial innovation. We'll upgrade the digital ICBC, the D-ICBC to AI ICBC. This is primarily based on three considerations. One is the trend of the era actively embracing the megatrend of digitalization, networking, and intelligent development, implement national strategies, advancing the AI Plus initiative in line with local conditions. Third is doubling affirming transformation, injecting strong momentum into building ICBC into a world-class modern financial institution. This upgrade signifies ICBC's commitment to advancing alongside the era and the nation, fully embracing artificial intelligence to elevate its digital and intelligent development to new heights. Second, achievements in AI applications.
Currently, AI presented unprecedented data development opportunities for ICBC. Digital and intelligent transformation is not an option, but a necessity. It's a strategic choice to seize the initiative and gain a competitive edge. In 2025, we launched the leading AI Plus initiative, combining top-level design with grassroots innovation to drive technological advancements in practical application, actively fostering high-quality financial productivity. Last year, we became the first in the industry to receive the highest level certification across all capability domains in the DCMM assessment. At the technical level, we are committed to breaking new ground and continuously strengthening our technological support. Focusing on core elements such as computing power, algorithm, data, and security, we have launched the ICBC Smart Search technology system. It features four key characteristics. Efficient computing power.
We have built a large-scale elastic computing power pool, primarily based on domestic solutions, aiming to enhance training scale and achieve multi-level switching between training and inference modes. Adaptive models. We have integrated over 10 mainstream industry models, conducted in-depth seven-day training, and developed an enterprise-level foundational model matrix that better understands finance in ICBC. Additionally, we created an industry-leading intelligent agent collection platform. Rich data resources. We have established our enterprise-level AI management system, constructing a high-quality, large-scale, and comprehensive training token financial data set to provide ample material for the large AI training. ICBC is the only bank selected for the National Data Administration's 2025 Trusted Data Space Innovation Development Pilot. Security and reliability. We have enhanced the governance efficiency by building a full chain security protection system for AI applications, effectively combining infrastructure security, data security, model security, and application security.
At the application level, we adhere to a grassroots approach, addressing business pain points with tangible solutions guided by value-driven principles. We successfully implement AI and intelligence in over 500 scenarios. For example, investment and trading. We extensively deployed an intelligent pricing assistant in the financial market, achieving a -6% smart trading ratio and a 50% value increase in transaction volume. Customer acquisition and marketing. We developed a personal client manager marketing assistant, creating a human-AI collaborative marketing model that drove CNY billions in additional sales for key products. Risk management. We introduced a credit intelligence assistant, providing end-to-end support for over 20,000 credit officers across the bank. Operational efficiency. By innovating with a centralized operational assistant, we processed 370 million transactions in 2026, improving efficiency while reducing operational risks among other achievements.
The third aspect pertains to fintech planning and the key initiatives for the current year. Aligning with the national 14th Five-Year Plan framework and grounded in practical realities, ICBC has formulated a preliminary draft of its group-wide 15th Five-Year Plan. As a core component of this plan, we have defined the guiding principles for building a data-digital intelligent ICBC, summarized "One One Three Highs". One refers to digital intelligence-driven high-quality productive forces. Three highs include ICBC's high-quality development as the overarching goal of the initiative. The second high is group-wide high-level security, the foundation building one. The third high is high-efficiency governance via business technology data integration, assisting safeguard. The One One Three Highs framework will serve as the central theme for ICBC fintech efforts in the coming phase.
We maintain an open mindset, deepen insights through practice, refine strategies for innovation, and continuously expand the pathways to realizing the AI ICBC. To ensure a solid implementation of the plan, the first year is crucial. ICBC adheres to a Five-Year Plan and will target governance, this year's objectives for the entire bank. Building an AI ICBC is our key focus of these efforts. We will concentrate on four aspects: intelligent smart capabilities, computational shared platform, continually implementing the Navigate AI Plus initiative to strengthen digital intelligent momentum. First, accelerate intelligent transformation. Continuously optimize ICBC Brain, build an enterprise-level data space, enhance knowledge base-enabled financial AI agents. Second, strengthen the smart foundation. Upgrade eLife 2.0 smart banking ecosystem, advance toward an AI-native architecture, and shift the role of technology from backstage support to frontline driver. Third, expand intelligent computing capacity.
Proactively optimize the computing power system to provide advanced, efficient, and secure support for digital intelligent development. Fourth, develop shared platforms. Enhance key platforms such as mobile banking and accelerate the one client, one advisor service model, offering customers seamless access and bank-wide responsive high-quality services. In summary, we must pursue innovation with determination, take proactive action, and accelerate the construction of AI ICBC and deepen the integration of AI intelligence with finance in order to build a unique and a hard-to-replicate competitive edge and inject robust momentum into ICBC's vision to become a first-class leading intelligence-driven AI-enabled bank. Thank you.
Are there any more questions from Hong Kong? Please, sir. Mister from the first row.
Thank you for the opportunity. I'm with Morgan Stanley. My question is about the capital replenishment and the profit distribution. What are ICBC's capital replenishment plans for 2026? How will dividend policies evolve? We also noticed that other banks are increasing their profit distribution. Will ICBC consider raising its cash dividend payout ratio to further enhance investor returns?
I will ask the board secretary to answer your question.
Thank you for your question. ICBC has always placed high importance on capital management, maintaining industry-leading capital matrix. In 2025, adhering to the overarching principle of balancing value creation, market position, risk control and capital constraints, ICBC rigorously implemented new capital regulations and continuously improved capital management effectiveness. First, capital management initiative. In 2025, we optimized long-term capital replenishment mechanism. We returned earnings, added RMB 246.9 billion to CET1 capital, issued RMB 230 billion in capital instruments and RMB 10 billion in TLAC bonds. We reduced weighted average interest cost of existing instruments by 42 BPs.
At the end of last year, our CR was 18.76%, the Tier 1 capital ratio 14.94%, the CET1 ratio 13.57%, the TLAC risk-weighted ratio 21.47%, TLAC leverage ratio 10.79%, maintain regulatory buffer. For 2026, our strategic actions are first to have this 15th Five-Year Plan capital strategy. We'll develop a forward-looking capital plan to support real economy that advances ICBC's five transformations. Second, we'll deepen the EVA integration, embed EVA metrics into business units' evaluations to drive value-driven decision-making. Third, we'll have this proactive capital management.
We'll execute the capital and TLAC insurance plan flexibly based on capital supply, demand dynamics, market liquidity conditions, and the policy support. We'll issue this. The states will issue RMB 300 billion special treasury bonds for systematic banks, pending official announcements. Our commitment is delivering sustainable returns while balancing strategic growth. Since our listing, we have cumulative cash dividends of RMB 1.58 trillion. Our payout ratio consistently higher than 30%, the highest among Asia-listed company. For the frequency, we have this semi-annual dividends since 2024. Both interim and final dividends, we have twice dividends distribution over the year. For the H-share flexibility, we add this RMB dividend option since 2024. For the dividend yield advantage, from 2023 to 2025, the average H-share yield is 5.22%.
Average A-share yield is 7.29%. In 2025, the yield, the H-share yield is 4.22%. The A-share yield is 5.99%, significantly exceeded one-year deposit rates of 1.5% and average wealth management yield of 3.2%. We believe the shares of ICBC has this long-term value for our investors. As for 2025 dividends execution, we have this interim dividend of RMB 50.4 billion, which was distributed in August 2025. Our proposed final dividend is RMB 60.2 billion, subject to AGM approval. The 2025 total payout is RMB 110 billion. In future policy direction, ICBC will dynamically optimize dividend policies by triangulating shareholders' return expectation, capital retention needs, external financial condition.
Our goal is to sustain top-tier dividend yield while preserving strategic flexibility. Mr. Liu Jun want to supplement that ICBC has the highest of capital among other peers, and the changes in our capital will bring signals to the industry. We'll continue to commit to the market that we will manage our capital well. We have this rolling capital management plan. We will make good use of our internal and external capital replenishment. Second, see from our PB and from our bond yield, from our share yields that
The share use is higher than the WM products. This means ICBC is available for investment. We will not stop here. We will continue to create more values to showcase our value for investment and bring returns to our investors. Secondly, we will continue to bring more income. By building a solid finances, we will have more capital replenishment. We want to build strong, both our credit business and our non-interest income businesses. We will have this dynamic changes to the market demand, so as to secure a healthy development in the market. If market wants higher payout ratio, ICBC will also take into consideration of the market demands. If the adjustments will bring healthier development to the markets, then ICBC will take the lead in maybe increasing our payout ratio.
We'll also look up to our international peers to make better capital management, and we will monitor the demands from the capital markets in terms of the payout ratio. Thank you. That's all from me. Now we can take the final question. Thank you. My question is about the corporate banking. Corporate banking has always been a traditional strength of ICBC in 2025. What new achievements will ICBC make in supporting industry, commerce, and the technological innovation? The 15th Five-Year Plan lists building a modern industry, industrial system, and consolidating the foundation of the world economy as the top of its 12 strategic tasks. How will ICBC optimize its corporate credit allocation structure in 2026, and through comprehensive financial services contribute to building a modern industrial system? Now I ask President Wang Jingwu to answer this question.
Thank you for your question. About your first question, ICBC's achievements in supporting industry, commerce, and technological innovation. Industrial and commercial credit is still the traditional strength. In 2025, ICBC thoroughly implemented the guiding principles of the national strategies. We proactively aligned with existing policies and a package of incremental measures focusing on the needs of modern industrial system development. By building a highly adaptable modern corporate credit framework, we continuously enhanced the high-quality financial support for the real economy. As of 2025, the bank's corporate loan balance reached CNY 18.8 trillion, maintaining a leading position in the industry with a full-year increase of CNY 1.4 trillion. Mostly, we achieved solid results in serving sectors such as manufacturing, commerce, and technology. First, manufacturing loan balance continues to exceed CNY 5 trillion, reaching new heights.
We actively support the manufacturing power strategy, launching specialized financial plans for new industrialization. Aligned with large-scale equipment renewal initiative, we conducted the ICBC Benefit Cluster campaign in the guidance of MIIT to serve 80 national-level manufacturing clusters, fostering intelligent, green, and integrated development. By the end of 2025, the manufacturing loan balance reached CNY 5.2 trillion, a 20% increase with both balance and growth leading the industry. Equipment renewal loans exceeded CNY 150 billion in disbursements. Second, we serve over nine million commercial and trade customers, expanding our reach even further. We prioritize building a robust domestic market by deepening key scenarios such as cross-border and domestic bulk commodities, trade logistics, e-commerce, and service consumption to boost domestic demand and stimulate consumption.
Under the guidance of MOF, the MOFCOM, we engaged in a headquarters-level retail lease project collaboration, providing nearly CNY 10 billion in funding support for over 30 retail projects, including Beijing's Longfusi Commercial Street. We also innovated and upgraded the Merchant e-Loan product to enhance financial support for SMEs in the trade sector. By the end of 2025, the RMB corporate settlement volume in the trade sector exceeded CNY 220 trillion, leading the industry, while the trading financing balances surpassed CNY 1 trillion. Additionally, the number of commercial and trade customers grew by over one million in 2025.
Third, the means of serving technological innovation have been further refined with stronger momentum for upgrading through innovation. A science and technology finance development plan was formulated to support the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries, as well as co-cultivation and expansion of emerging and future industries. We launched the ICBC Science and Technology Innovation Partner brand. Innovative and exclusive financial products such as Disruptive Technology Loans, credit score-based loans, R&D loans, and intellectual property financing were introduced to provide customers with more diversified financial support. By the end of 2025, the balance of technology related loans reached CNY 8.6 trillion. The coverage ratio of credit services for Little Giant specialized and sophisticated SMEs exceeded 30%, an increase of 22 percentage points from the beginning of the year. The aggregate value of science and technology innovation balance surpassed CNY 100 billion.
The second question is about ICBC's plan to support the modernization of the industrial system in 2026. Since the beginning of this year, ICBC has actively implemented fiscal and the financial policies to boost domestic demands, adhering to the principle of acting ahead in a proactive fashion to stabilize investment and promote consumption. On the one hand, we seized the early year construction peak, proactively engaging with priority projects and loan policy-based financial instruments. In the first two months, corporate loan disbursement exceeded CNY 2 trillion, with over CNY 60 billion allocated to support two key initiative projects. On the other hand, we supported the Spring Festival consumption boom.
On February seventeenth, 2026, ICBC collaborated with MOF, the MOFCOM, and the People's Bank of China, and key enterprises in the commercial sector to host the financial support for commerce to facilitate circulation and boost consumption symposium. We also launched the Happy Shopping for New Year campaign to stimulate consumption and contribute to building a robust domestic market. Moving forward, ICBC will continue to align with the needs for the real economy, monetary policy directions, and the bank's operational realities, maintain a strong cooperation building momentum. First, market-related approach to better serve the construction of modern industrial system. Modernization is a key component of our bank's five transformations. We will accelerate the development of modern corporate credit framework tailored to the financial needs of modern industrial system construction, providing services that better align with the economic structure.
For the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, we will enhance financial support for key areas of new industrialization. We'll deepen the ICBC AI Plus initiative to support advanced manufacturing clusters, comprehensively serving 80 national-level clusters to strengthen their core competitiveness. We will also back large-scale equipment renewal and upgrading to promote effective investment expansion. For nurturing emerging and future industries, we will refine our five specialized service system to better support the development of three international sci-tech innovation hubs and national regional sci-tech innovation centers. We'll build the ICBC Science and Technology Innovation ecosystem platform, offering full-cycle financial services to high-quality innovative enterprises, including Little Giant s and unicorns companies. For fostering high-quality and efficient modern services, we will leverage our strength in trade finance, focusing on key scenarios in modern services.
By utilizing policy tools such as service consumption and elderly care with lending, as well as interest subsidy programs for service sector businesses, will ensure precise product service alignment, develop industry-specific models, and drive high-quality developments. Second, leveraging major projects to advance national strategies. We will focus on the 109 major projects outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan, actively aligning with the priority list such as the major projects and major reforms, new manufacturing and new urbanization initiative, new policy bank financial instruments, and central government's budgetary investments. Our support will prioritize development of the national comprehensive 3D transportation network, new energy systems, modern water networks, urban renewal projects. These efforts will accelerate the establishment of a modern infrastructure system to boost national strategy goals. Third, client-centric approach will accelerate the enhancement of full integration with service capabilities.
We'll vigorously promote our comprehensive financial solutions, closely tracking evolving clients' needs while strengthening the financing intellectual empowerment, technological enablement, and ecosystem synergy to elevate our integrated services capability and build differentiated competitive advantage. By deeply embedding ICBC premium service into clients, industry chains, supply chains, and business ecosystem, we aim to become their trusted financial partners of choice.
Due to time limits, that's the end of Q&A session. I wanna thank all the investors, analysts and my friends from the media for your communication with the management. We believe this is not only an important results announcement, but it is also an in-depth and professional communication. It not only reflects our 2025 results, but it also shows our confidence for the future years. In the future, we will have roadshows and some other ways to keep a close communication with the market.
If you have further questions, our IR and PR teams are very happy to communicate with you. ICBC will stick to its core business, improve its efficacy and efficiency, and create long-term and stable value for our investors. Thank you for your support.