Lenders reap dividend from rise in retail banking

Many listed Chinese commercial banks are expanding retail banking, which has made a greater contribution to their operating incomes.

The contribution of retail banking set a record for China Merchants Bank Co Ltd, a national joint-stock commercial lender headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

By the end of June, the proportion of retail loans to total loans and advances of the group was 55.04 percent, up 61 basis points from the end of last year. The proportion of operating income of retail banking of the group reached 54.48 percent, up 4.61 percentage points year-on-year, said China Merchants Bank in its 2019 interim results announcement issued on Saturday.