Ningbo Bank, a full ship of star dreams pressing the galaxy

How does AI · Risk Control System ensure the continuous low bad debt ratio?

Produced by | Caixin Society

Article | Wu Qi

In the process of China's economy accelerating its shift toward high-quality development, the real economy has become the core pillar of national economic growth, and as the main financial force serving the real economy, the banking industry is undergoing a silent but profound transformation.

Since it is a transformation, difficulties are inevitable. The downward trend in market interest rates leads to a continuous narrowing of interest spreads, and the profit margins of traditional corporate banking businesses are constantly being squeezed. Given the tightness in corporate lending, the focus must shift to inclusive finance and retail finance as the core directions for transformation and breakthrough. However, the industry pain points of small and micro customers—such as information asymmetry, weak risk management capabilities, and volatile cash flows—remain significant challenges.

Impressive performance amid countercyclical growth

In this tough transformation battle, the financial report of Ningbo Bank may provide an important reference for the industry. According to Ningbo Bank’s 2025 annual report data, by the end of 2025, the bank achieved operating income of 71.97B yuan and net profit attributable to the parent of 29.33B yuan, representing year-on-year increases of 8.01% and 8.13%, respectively.

In terms of asset size, Ningbo Bank’s total assets exceeded 3.62 trillion yuan, a 16.11% increase from the beginning of the year. The total loans and advances reached 1.73 trillion yuan, and total deposits were 2.02 trillion yuan. The growth rate of deposits and loans outpaced the asset growth rate, and the asset-liability structure continued to optimize, laying a more solid foundation for business development.

Achieving such excellent results naturally depends on the growth of retail business. By the end of the reporting period, Ningbo Bank’s retail customer base reached 439.5k accounts, including 213.4k inclusive micro and small enterprise customers. The balance of inclusive micro and small enterprise loans reached 257.4 billion yuan, a significant increase of 17.01% from the end of the previous year.

This data also clearly shows how much effort Ningbo Bank has put into the micro and small business sector. Additionally, another noteworthy figure is that by the end of 2025, credit loans accounted for 39.14% of Ningbo Bank’s loan guarantees, while guarantee loans accounted for 32.86%, with the combined proportion exceeding 70%.

Historically, micro and small business credit relied mainly on real estate collateral. Ningbo Bank, however, is expanding its business in this field with a new approach. More impressively, its asset quality remains stable, with a non-performing rate of only 0.76%, making it one of the lowest among A-share banks, and the only listed bank in China with a non-performing rate below 1% for 19 consecutive years.

This success is attributed to its years of deep regional market engagement and focus on core customer groups, which have built precise risk identification and management capabilities.

Core risk control through cycles

The core foundation of Ningbo Bank’s risk control system lies in its consistent adherence to the principle of “familiar markets, understanding customers.” The core customer groups are firmly focused on private micro and small enterprises, manufacturing micro and small enterprises, tech innovation micro and small enterprises, and import-export micro and small enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region. These groups are not only the most dynamic components of China’s real economy but also the core groups with which Ningbo Bank has cultivated deep relationships over many years, possessing comprehensive information advantages and service experience.

As a hub for private economy and micro and small enterprises in China, the Yangtze River Delta boasts a complete industrial chain and vibrant economy. Leveraging local advantages and years of industry engagement, Ningbo Bank has developed a profound understanding of the operational and risk characteristics of regional customers. From the source of business entry, this minimizes information asymmetry-related credit risks, strengthening the first line of defense for the steady development of inclusive finance.

In fact, Ningbo Bank has built a differentiated risk control system for micro and small customers and retail clients, deploying a new generation of credit risk management systems. Through process reengineering and data integration, it significantly improves operational efficiency and risk collaboration capabilities. Meanwhile, it continues to upgrade its intelligent risk control platform, deepening the application of big data, artificial intelligence, and other technologies in risk monitoring, early warning, and decision-making, driving risk management toward intelligence and automation, and providing powerful technological support for risk control.

In the current environment where bank interest spreads are narrowing and industry segmentation is intensifying, more banks are focusing on micro and small, and retail businesses as core transformation directions. However, most banks remain at the stage of scale expansion and price competition, without truly building differentiated risk control capabilities that match customer risk profiles. This often results in a growth dilemma where “scale increases, but non-performing loans also rise.”

Ningbo Bank’s development practice clearly demonstrates that the core competitiveness of micro and small, and retail businesses is never about size but about precise risk identification and scientific risk pricing.

Only by establishing a full-chain risk control system that matches customer risk characteristics can banks break out of homogeneous competition and ultimately achieve balanced development of business scale, asset quality, and profitability.

Ningbo’s answer to industry transformation

With the continuous deepening of China’s digital economy, the ongoing sharing and openness of government data and industrial chain data, and the deep application of AI and big data technologies in finance, the risk control system of banks is entering a new round of digital transformation.

Ningbo Bank’s accumulated strength in digital risk control and differentiated customer management over many years will give it greater room for growth in this new wave of industry change.

In a market environment where industry segmentation continues to intensify, the competition in banking has shifted from rough scale expansion to refined core operational capabilities. Ningbo Bank’s development model clearly proves that the core value of financial institutions is never about disorderly expansion of asset size but about precise, professional risk management—delivering financial resources accurately to the most needed entities in the real economy, achieving a symbiotic relationship between business value and social responsibility.

This is not only the key to Ningbo Bank’s continued industry leadership but also the fundamental direction for China’s banking industry to move toward high-quality development.