Weihai Bank achieves steady results in 2025, with Meng Dongxiao making outstanding contributions.

Production | China-Visit Network

Review | Li Xiaoyan

Recently, Weihai Bank (09677.HK), which is listed on the Hong Kong stock market, released its 2025 annual performance report. This annual report shows that, amid a complex and ever-changing macroeconomic and financial environment, Weihai Bank achieved coordinated improvement in scale, efficiency, and quality. Its total assets successfully surpassed 500 billion yuan, profitability maintained double-digit growth, all core regulatory indicators were comprehensively met, and it demonstrated strong development resilience and a solid foundation of prudent operations. At the same time, in response to industry-wide common challenges, the bank proactively adjusted its retail business strategy, strengthening the foundation for long-term development amid short-term pains, while the market-oriented compensation mechanism provided ongoing personnel support for its sustained steady progress.

In 2025, Weihai Bank turned in an impressive performance. By year-end, the bank’s total assets reached 504.52 billion yuan, up 14.28% year over year. It officially moved into the ranks of domestic medium-sized commercial banks. Within Shandong Province, it continued to rank in the top three among city commercial banks, and its industry position and market influence remained firmly consolidated.

On the profitability front, it achieved operating income of 9.92B yuan for the full year, up 6.46% year over year. It also recorded net profit of 342.33B yuan, with a year-over-year increase of as much as 13.90%. Its growth rate was significantly faster than that of revenue, reflecting good cost control and an improvement in earning capacity. On the liabilities side, performance was especially steady: total deposits amounted to 171.52B yuan, up 16.64% from the prior year. This provided a stable, low-cost source of funding for credit expansion and business development.

Regarding asset quality, Weihai Bank maintained a strong level of risk control. By year-end, its non-performing loan ratio was 1.41%, unchanged from the previous year, placing it in a good range among smaller and mid-sized banks. More positively, the loan loss coverage ratio increased to 160.14%, up 4.07 percentage points from the end of the previous year. Its risk coverage capacity was further strengthened, laying a solid line of defense to address potential risks. Core regulatory indicators such as capital adequacy ratio were also comprehensively met, ensuring ample protection for operational safety and sustainability.

From the perspective of credit composition, in 2025 Weihai Bank showed a distinctive strategic shift characterized by “strength in corporate banking and stability in retail.” By the end of the reporting period, the outstanding balance of corporate loans was 2.04M yuan, up 13.96% year over year, and its share of total loans increased to 76%, becoming the core engine for credit growth.

This change is not a simple expansion in size, but a strategic manifestation of the bank’s focus on its core business and serving the real economy. As a key local financial force, Weihai Bank directed credit resources precisely toward high-quality enterprises in the region, key projects, green industries, and inclusive finance. It deeply integrated into the overall development of the local economy. By growing and strengthening its corporate banking business, it not only supported the real economy effectively, but also, thanks to the low-risk characteristics of high-quality corporate assets, stabilized the bank’s overall asset quality, becoming the “anchor weight” that helps it weather the cycle.

At the same time, the balance of personal loans was 37.41 billion yuan, with its share falling to below 17%. This adjustment reflected the bank’s proactive strategic choice based on the macro environment, market risks, and its own capabilities. In recent years, challenges have become more prominent, including fluctuations in residents’ consumption demand, intensifying competition in the personal credit market, and increasing difficulty in risk control. Weihai Bank assessed the situation and proactively reduced its high-risk retail credit exposure, concentrating resources on its advantageous areas. In essence, it is a rational trade-off of “knowing when to do and when not to do,” aiming to retreat to advance and to build strength for the future high-quality restart of retail business.

It is undeniable that, in recent years, the quality of Weihai Bank’s retail loans has faced phased pressure. Data show that, affected by external factors such as slowing macroeconomic conditions and a high level of leverage in the household sector, along with less stringent risk-control standards in some early-stage businesses, the balance of non-performing retail loans at the bank has increased somewhat, and the implied non-performing loan ratio is expected to reach a phased peak in 2025.

However, objectively speaking, pressure on retail asset quality is a common industry problem faced by smaller and mid-sized banks in recent years, not unique to Weihai Bank. It should also be seen that Weihai Bank has taken proactive measures to “treat the disease at its root”: on one hand, by proactively reducing loan volume and tightening entry standards, it controls new risks from the source; on the other hand, it increases efforts to recover and dispose of non-performing assets to accelerate risk clearance. In 2025, despite a slight increase in the total non-performing amount, the bank’s non-performing loan ratio remained stable, while the loan loss coverage ratio increased against the trend. This indicates that its risk resolution work has produced tangible results, and the most difficult stage is behind it.

At the beginning of his tenure, Chairman Meng Dongxiao proposed promoting the transformation of retail business. The core is not to return to the old path of “size first,” but to map out a new route of “light capital, high quality, and smart-driven.” In the future, the bank is expected to leverage local resource endowments, focus on wealth management, consumer finance, community finance, and other areas, use financial technology as a key enabler, deepen its engagement with local customer segments, and deliver differentiated, scenario-based services. This will help shift retail business from “expansion in quantity” to “a leap in quality.” The short-term structural adjustments are precisely what create conditions for long-term rebirth and renewal.

Regarding executive compensation that the market is watching, Chairman Meng Dongxiao’s compensation at Weihai Bank in 2025 was 262.8k yuan. This level places him in the first tier among smaller and mid-sized banks with comparable asset sizes. While it may appear high, it in fact reflects market-based incentive mechanisms.

First, executive compensation is closely linked to performance. During Meng Dongxiao’s term, Weihai Bank’s asset size rose from the 400 billion-yuan range to the 500 billion-yuan range. Net profit has grown at double-digit rates year after year, and a high salary is a reasonable return for his outstanding operating results. Second, the gap between his pay and employees’ average compensation aligns with the industry convention in banking that “executives assume higher risks, bear higher responsibilities, and receive higher returns.” From 2021 to 2025, the bank’s employees’ average compensation increased steadily from 2.628 million yuan to 302k yuan, achieving shared interest between management and employees.

More importantly, Weihai Bank has established a compensation system that includes deferred payments and performance-based linkage, deeply tying executive compensation to long-term risks and prudent operations. This “high pay plus strict constraints” mechanism both attracts outstanding financial talent and effectively prevents short-term behavior, providing key talent and governance support for the bank’s continuous and healthy development.

Overall, Weihai Bank’s 2025 operating performance was steady with progress and its highlights were prominent. The milestone of crossing the 500 billion-yuan asset mark, strong growth in profitability, and solid support from corporate banking demonstrate its comprehensive strength as a regional leading bank. In the face of phased challenges in retail business, the bank proactively adjusted and responded positively, showing clear strategic resolve and strong risk-control capability. Meanwhile, its market-oriented compensation system provides institutional assurance for maintaining vitality amid intense competition.

Looking ahead, as the macroeconomy warms up, retail risks gradually clear, and digital transformation advances further, Weihai Bank is expected to achieve a steady recovery and breakthrough in retail business on the basis of consolidating its corporate banking advantage, and to carve out a differentiated development path that combines scale, efficiency, and distinctive features—contributing greater financial strength to high-quality local economic development.