Banks accelerating global expansion

As Chinese banks accelerate their global push in support of the country's high-level opening-up, international expansion is rapidly emerging as a new battleground. More lenders are turning to overseas growth to offset narrowing net interest margins and build resilience for long-term value creation.

Zhang Hui, president of Bank of China, said the bank has always treated globalization as its core development strategy and top priority, and will continue to advance it unwaveringly.

In 2025, BOC further consolidated its advantages in global operations, with improved global network capabilities and international competitiveness. Overseas institutions contributed nearly 28 percent of its profit before income tax, and it became the first Chinese-funded global custodian bank.

BOC's overseas institutions now span 64 countries and regions, including 45 participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. Its global network serves around 28,000 Chinese enterprises expanding abroad and more than 330,000 foreign-funded companies operating in China. The bank has nearly 410,000 cross-border settlement clients and holds over half of the market share in Cross-border Interbank Payment System business. The system, also known as CIPS, specializes in renminbi cross-border payment clearing.

Zhang said the bank will continue to advance its global development strategy, further strengthening its international presence and competitiveness. At the same time, it will enhance forward-looking risk assessment and response by closely tracking evolving trends in global markets, improving monitoring and early warning systems, and safeguarding overseas assets.

Efforts will also be stepped up to develop regional headquarters, boost regional network capabilities, accelerate expansion in emerging markets and deepen regional coordination. In parallel, the bank will upgrade its digital and intelligent capabilities overseas, accelerate the application of technologies such as smart contracts and blockchain, and steadily improve operational efficiency, he said.

In its 2025 annual results announcement, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China identified global operations and integrated services as its newly pioneered "growth poles", injecting additional momentum to address the constraints of low interest margins and forge value resilience that transcends economic cycles.

As of the end of 2025, total assets of ICBC's overseas institutions reached $491.6 billion, representing 6.4 percent of the group's total assets and growing 12.4 percent from the previous year-end. Profit before taxation of its overseas institutions during the period was $4.4 billion, accounting for 7.3 percent of the group's profit before taxation.

Yao Mingde, senior executive vice-president of ICBC, said the bank's net interest margin decline is expected to narrow further in 2026 compared with last year, partly due to a more optimized asset-liability structure aligned with a high-standard opening-up strategy.

Yao said ICBC has continued to deepen integrated global operations in recent years, actively expanding overseas business and supporting the internationalization of the renminbi.

The lender has seized opportunities from RMB internationalization. In 2025, it was authorized to serve as the RMB clearing bank in Turkiye, bringing the total of its RMB clearing banks to 12. Its annual cross-border RMB business volume exceeded 10 trillion yuan ($1.46 trillion).

As of the end of 2025, the bank operated 410 overseas institutions in 49 countries and regions, together with a further 21 African countries through its shareholding in Standard Bank Group.

Yao noted that benchmark interest rates in major developed economies and emerging markets may decline further. In the short term, net interest margins of ICBC's overseas institutions will continue to narrow, but their contribution to national strategies and overall group value is becoming increasingly prominent.