Focus on the AI industry chain and other fields! Break down the technology finance of the six major state-owned banks.

Recently, listed banks completed their 2025 annual financial report disclosures.

A review by Securities China reporters found that the six major state-owned banks continue to strengthen their position as the main force in technology finance. By the end of 2025, the combined balance of technological loans at these six state-owned banks had surpassed 23.3 trillion yuan, with year-over-year growth rates generally remaining above 15%.

It is worth noting that, as their scale continues to expand, these large state-owned banks are transforming from purely providing credit to a comprehensive service system of “equity, loans, bonds, insurance, and leasing,” especially with breakthroughs in digital risk control systems—shifting from “looking at the past” to “looking at the future” in credit logic—and through coordinated efforts in equity investment pilot programs for financial asset investment companies (AICs) and loans for mergers and acquisitions of tech companies. This marks a new stage in the service of commercial bank technology finance, supported by “technology-driven” evaluation and full lifecycle investment and loan linkage.

AI industry chain and strategic emerging industries become focal points for deployment

With an advantage in total assets, the six major state-owned banks continue to hold an absolute leading position in the market for technology loans, with significant growth.

At the performance briefing, the management of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) revealed that by the end of 2025, the balance of technology loans had first exceeded 6 trillion yuan, an increase of nearly 1 trillion yuan from the beginning of the year, with a year-over-year growth rate of 19.9%. The bank’s technology loan allocation remains the top among peers, with strategic emerging industry loans surpassing 4 trillion yuan.

As of the end of 2025, China Construction Bank’s technology loan balance reached 5.25 trillion yuan, an increase of 233k yuan from the previous year, up 18.91%; among which, loans to strategic emerging industries totaled 3.52 trillion yuan, up 23.46%. The bank’s vice president, Lei Ming, also disclosed that CCB served nearly 320k enterprises throughout the year, with both customer count and loan balance ranking among the top in the market.

According to disclosures, CCB focused on emerging industries and future industries such as semiconductors, high-end equipment manufacturing, new-generation information technology, industrial gases, and new energy. It also paid attention to cultivating technological talent, technological innovation, scientific research成果转化, and technological industry development across five major sectors.

Agricultural Bank of China’s technology loan balance reached 4.7 trillion yuan by the end of 2025, a 20.1% increase from the end of the previous year; it served over 350k tech-based enterprises, with coverage and loan growth rates among the industry leaders. In terms of industry services, the bank focused on modern industrial systems and new productive forces, while highlighting agricultural technology features—supporting seed industry revitalization, agricultural parks, and agricultural machinery equipment, and innovating products like “Agricultural Park Tech Enterprise Loans” and “Farm Machinery Loans” to support leading agricultural tech companies.

Bank of China’s technology loan balance exceeded 4.82 trillion yuan by the end of 2025, an 18.78% increase. President Zhang Hui revealed at the performance briefing that the bank’s technology loans account for over one-third of corporate loans, ranking first among comparable peers; the total number of credit customers exceeded 170k, with coverage and customer growth rates leading the market.

Of particular note, Bank of China was the first to release an action plan supporting the development of the artificial intelligence industry chain, establishing cooperation with nearly 4,500 core enterprises in the AI industry chain, with credit balances reaching 545.6 billion yuan, and plans to provide no less than 1 trillion yuan in specialized comprehensive financial support for this industry chain over the next five years.

Bank of Communications’ technology loan balance at the end of 2025 reached 1.58 trillion yuan, a 10.73% increase from the previous year; loans to “specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative” SMEs and tech SMEs grew by 21.02% and 36.29%, respectively.

The bank focused on Shanghai, supporting three leading industries: integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence, launching the “Shanghai Three Leading Industries (Integrated Circuits)” action plan and supporting several key projects in the integrated circuit sector.

Postal Savings Bank’s technology loan balance at the end of 2025 surpassed 950 billion yuan, a growth of over 13% from the previous year; it served over 100k tech enterprises, with the proportion of loans to tech SMEs ranking among the top at the state-owned banks. The bank also successfully issued its first 5 billion yuan technology innovation bond, with a 3-year floating rate, the first of its kind in the market.

Overall, the six major banks have continuously increased their support for technological innovation through credit deployment, with total loans growing by over 3.6 trillion yuan compared to the end of 2024, becoming core financial forces in serving the real economy and cultivating new productive forces. While maintaining overall growth, each bank is also intensively supporting strategic emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, biomedicine, and new energy, with increasingly distinctive industry layout features.

Building “technology-driven” evaluation systems

In addition to scale expansion, the state-owned banks have significantly improved their precision and professionalism in serving tech enterprises. They generally establish full-cycle service systems covering early startup, growth, maturity, and listing stages, and use specialized institutions and digital risk control methods to address the challenges of “light assets and unsecured” financing.

Notably, in organizational structure, these banks typically establish multi-level technology finance service systems of “head office—branch—sub-branch—specialized outlets.”

ICBC has improved its “five-special” service mechanism—specialized institutions, special actions, dedicated products, dedicated risk control, and dedicated guarantees—setting up 25 technology finance centers at the branch level and 160 tech sub-branches; ABC has established 25 technology finance service centers and over 300 specialized tech branches; Bank of China has set up technology finance centers and 275 tech outlets in 24 provinces and cities with concentrated sci-tech resources such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen; Bank of Communications has over 100 technology branches and特色支行, with 35 branches forming dedicated technology finance promotion units; Postal Savings Bank has established a technology finance department at the first level in six key branches including Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Shenzhen, and built over 100特色支行 and outlets.

In terms of service models, the major banks have launched exclusive credit products and evaluation models, breaking through the traditional “three tables” framework. CCB has built a “technology flow” sci-tech innovation evaluation system, incorporating intellectual property, technical capability, and entrepreneur information as a new “technology innovation table” to help enterprises realize the “credit-ization” and “digitalization” of intellectual property. Postal Savings Bank promotes the “technology flow” evaluation system, with credit额度 exceeding one trillion yuan, and is advancing the construction of a “Sci-Tech Innovation Cloud Map,” a panoramic evaluation platform for tech enterprises. Bank of Communications has independently developed an “1+N” evaluation model for tech enterprises, scoring their innovation capacity across five dimensions: human capital, R&D ability, social recognition, operational performance, and industry position.

Bank of China has developed the “BOC Sci-Tech Innovation Exaggeration System,” using digital technology to integrate enterprise innovation capacity, operational status, risk assessment, and other factors, forming a multi-dimensional evaluation system for tech enterprises. It has already served over 10k companies, helping shift tech finance services from “experience-driven” to “intelligent-driven.” To address the particular needs of emerging and frontier industries, the bank has also initiated an external expert database for tech finance and launched a “cloud review” model to enable efficient credit approval.

To meet the full lifecycle needs of tech enterprises, each bank has launched differentiated product matrices. ICBC offers “R&D Loans,” “Innovation Points Loans,” and “Disruptive Technology Innovation Special Loans,” among others; CCB has introduced “Good New Loans” and “Good Tech Loans” (with a balance exceeding 160 billion yuan, up over 50%), as well as “Tech Easy Loans” and “Tech R&D Loans” for growth-stage companies, and M&A loans and tech bonds for mature firms.

Meanwhile, ABC has created a “Nongyin Chuangda” full lifecycle service plan, innovating products like “Tech Express Loans” and “Innovation Points Loans”; Bank of Communications has built a “Sci-Tech Innovation Easy Loan” product line, offering “Sci-Tech Talent Loans” for startups, “Sci-Tech Scenario Loans” for growth-stage firms, and “Sci-Tech Fast Loans” for mature companies.

AIC equity investment and M&A loans advance together

The 2025 financial reports highlight another major trend: the state-owned banks with licenses for Financial Asset Investment Companies (AICs) are accelerating the construction of a multi-layered financing support system combining equity and debt, leveraging policies such as AIC pilot programs, sci-tech bond underwriting, and M&A loan pilots to create a new “investment-loan linkage” paradigm.

By the end of 2025, ICBC had established 48 AIC pilot funds through ICBC Investment, with a committed scale of 108.4 billion yuan, leading the industry, achieving full coverage of pilot city fund cooperation; CCB had set up 28 AIC pilot funds, with cooperation agreements in all 18 pilot cities, and a total equity investment in sci-tech enterprises exceeding 90 billion yuan.

ABC had established 27 pilot funds, investing in 31 sci-tech projects, and signed cooperation agreements with all AIC pilot cities. It also participated in setting up the largest nationwide Zhejiang Sci-Tech Innovation Fund of 50 billion yuan, initiated by social security funds and state-owned banks. BOC’s subsidiary, BOC Asset Management, established 28 AIC funds with a committed scale of 23.43 billion yuan; BOC Securities set up 10 sci-tech parent funds with a committed scale of 16.68 billion yuan, totaling over 40 billion yuan in commitments, with landmark projects in aerospace, biomedicine, AI, and integrated circuits.

Notably, Postal Savings Bank’s AIC subsidiary, China Post Investment, was approved to commence operations in March 2026, marking the final piece in the comprehensive AIC layout by the six major state-owned banks. The bank plans to develop it into an innovative platform for investment-loan linkage, long-term capital for technological innovation, a debt-to-equity restructuring platform, and an equity investment management platform.

In bond underwriting, CCB underwrote 71.98 billion yuan of sci-tech bonds in the year, up 282.43%; ABC underwrote 220.6 billion yuan of sci-tech bonds; BOC ranked among the top in the industry for sci-tech bond underwriting.

More notably, the pilot policy for M&A loans for tech companies was fully implemented in 2025. CCB made M&A loans in the tech sector totaling an additional 35.12 billion yuan by the end of 2025, accounting for nearly 70% of all new M&A loans, establishing itself as a leading bank in tech M&A. The bank has completed 44 pilot projects with a total disbursement of 60k yuan.

In M&A loans, Postal Savings Bank also successfully issued nearly 3.7 billion yuan in tech M&A loans. Additionally, BOC provides integrated services combining M&A loans, M&A advisory, and equity investment, supporting over 190 billion yuan in M&A transactions. ABC’s total tech M&A loans exceeded 25 billion yuan.

From the annual report data, the technology finance business of the major state-owned banks has formed a diversified pattern of “stable credit base, accelerated equity and loan linkage, expanded bond underwriting, and breakthroughs in M&A services.” As the AIC teams expand to cover all six major banks and the pilot programs for tech M&A loans deepen, the “patient capital” supply capacity of commercial banks has been significantly enhanced, providing a more solid financial foundation for deep integration of technological and industrial innovation.