The latest annual results from Bank of Gansu and Jiangxi Bank show their margins are getting compressed by high interest payments on their time deposits and falling loan yields
image credit: Bamboo Works
Key Takeaways:
- Bank of Gansu and Jiangxi Bank are seeing their net interest margins compress sharply as they get pressured to lower loan interest rates but remain stuck with costly time deposits
- Their growing inability to generate profits means they may need capital support from their state-owned controlling shareholders, most likely diluting other shareholders
The latest annual results from Bank of Gansu Co. Ltd. (2139.HK) and Jiangxi Bank Co. Ltd. (1916.HK) — regional lenders anchored in two of China’s less developed provinces — paint a bleak picture of this corner of the Chinese financial sector.
Small regional banks like this pair are suffering the most in an industry-wide margin squeeze afflicting Chinese lenders. Loan demand is weak in a slowing economy, and the central bank’s low interest rate environment is crushing loan yields. At the same time, these smaller banks are struggling to reduce high costs for deposits. As their profitability comes under growing pressure, external capital support from their state-owned shareholders increasingly looks necessary. That would further undermine long-suffering private investors who have already seen the value of their shares shrivel.
Let’s start with Bank of Gansu, based in the country’s less affluent Northwest. Not only did the bank’s new lending shrink last year, but its net interest margin (NIM) also dropped to 1.09% from 1.18% in 2024, and 1.65% as recently as 2021, according to its report. As a result, net interest income, its primary revenue source, dropped 4.8% to 4.4 billion yuan ($637 million). Jiangxi Bank managed to boost its new lending, but its NIM narrowed even more, by more than 0.20 percentage points, to 1.41%, driving down its net interest income by nearly 10% to 7.7 billion yuan, according to its report.
The two banks are structurally more susceptible to margin pressure than big state-owned national lenders or regional banks in wealthier provinces.
Unlike those peers that benefit from deep pools of low-cost demand deposits generated by big corporate customers and high-velocity transaction flows, Jiangxi Bank and Bank of Gansu rely heavily on time deposits that carry much higher interest rates. That funding structure is a costly difference and …
This post was originally published here
