700 billion red envelope rain before the Spring Festival, dividends credited to 10 banks! All 31 listed banks have already paid their mid-term dividends.

Source: Times Weekly Author: Liu Ziqi

Source: TuChong

As the Spring Festival approaches, many listed banks are rapidly distributing “New Year red envelopes.”

According to Times Weekly reporters’ statistics, since January 1, 2026, Qilu Bank, Lanzhou Bank, Industrial Bank, Zijin Bank, China Everbright Bank, Huaxia Bank, Yunnan Rural Commercial Bank, China Merchants Bank, Jiangsu Bank, and Postal Savings Bank have successively announced their 2025 semi-annual A-share dividend and payout plans, totaling nearly 70 billion yuan.

Illustration: Times Weekly Data Source: Choice

Looking at the overall banking industry’s mid-2025 dividend situation, the six major state-owned banks remain the main force in dividends, with a total dividend payout of 204.657 billion yuan, accounting for over 70% of total cash dividends. This figure is roughly the same as the mid-year dividend scale of the same period last year.

In terms of performance, as of February 11 this year, 11 out of 42 listed banks in A-shares have disclosed their 2025 performance briefings, all achieving positive net profit growth attributable to shareholders.

Bank “Red Envelope Rain” Arrives

On February 11, Qilu Bank (601665.SH) distributed its 2025 mid-year dividend, with a cash dividend of 0.121 yuan per share (tax included), totaling 745 million yuan in cash dividends. Several shareholders reported receiving the “red envelope” on the evening of the 10th.

Thus, all 2025 mid-year dividends for A-share listed banks have been completed. Among them, 21 banks had completed their dividend distribution by December 31, 2025.

From January 12, 2026, to February 11, 2026, a total of 10 banks—Qilu Bank, Lanzhou Bank, Industrial Bank, Zijin Bank, China Everbright Bank, Huaxia Bank, Yunnan Rural Commercial Bank, China Merchants Bank, Jiangsu Bank, and Postal Savings Bank—distributed dividends, totaling nearly 70 billion yuan.

Among these, China Merchants Bank paid its mid-year cash dividend on January 16, with 1.013 yuan per share (tax included). The combined A+H share dividends exceeded 25.548 billion yuan, with approximately 20.897 billion yuan in cash dividends for A-shares (tax included). Notably, this is the bank’s first mid-year dividend since listing, leading the banking sector with a payout ratio of 35%.

Additionally, on February 6, Industrial Bank received its first mid-year dividend, paying 5.65 yuan per 10 shares, with a total dividend of 11.957 billion yuan.

As one of the “main force” banks in dividends, Postal Savings Bank previously announced on January 12 a dividend of 1.23 yuan per 10 shares (tax included), totaling 14.772 billion yuan. This is the only state-owned major bank to implement its 2025 mid-year dividend in 2026.

The other five state-owned banks completed their dividends during December 2025: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) paid 50.396 billion yuan, China Construction Bank paid 48.605 billion yuan, Agricultural Bank of China paid 41.823 billion yuan, Bank of China paid 35.25 billion yuan, and Bank of Communications paid 13.811 billion yuan. Including Postal Savings Bank, the total dividend payout reached 204.657 billion yuan.

This figure is roughly the same as the mid-year dividend scale of the same period last year, when the six major state-owned banks paid a total of 204.823 billion yuan in mid-2024.

It is worth noting that the mid-year dividend distribution of major state-owned banks in 2025 generally occurred nearly twenty days to a month and a half earlier than usual. For example, the dividend payout date for Bank of China and China Construction Bank was December 11, about one and a half months earlier than the same period last year; for ICBC and Agricultural Bank, the payout date was about twenty days earlier.

In addition, China Everbright Bank, Yunnan Rural Commercial Bank, Huaxia Bank, and Jiangsu Bank distributed their 2025 mid-year dividends between 10 billion and 65 billion yuan, while Qilu Bank, Lanzhou Bank, and Zijin Bank paid less than 10 billion yuan.

Wu Zewei, a special researcher at Su Commercial Bank, told Times Weekly that the 2025 mid-year bank dividends show notable features of “increased quantity, faster pace, and steady strength.” For the entire banking sector, this collective behavior sends a strong positive signal to the market that the industry’s overall profitability is stable and cash flow is ample, effectively boosting investor confidence, leading to valuation recovery, and producing obvious overall benefits.

Bank Mid-Year Dividend Expansion to 31 Banks

In terms of quantity, 31 listed banks announced their 2025 mid-year dividends, an increase of 8 compared to 2024, including China Merchants Bank, Changsha Bank, Ningbo Bank, Changshu Bank, Suzhou Rural Commercial Bank, Zhangjiagang Bank, Jiangyin Bank, and Industrial Bank.

In fact, since the second half of 2023, regulators have repeatedly introduced policies encouraging listed companies to optimize dividend methods, continuously promoting increased dividend awareness and levels among listed companies.

At the end of 2023, the China Securities Regulatory Commission revised relevant guidelines on cash dividends for listed companies, explicitly encouraging companies to increase dividend frequency and levels.

In April 2024, the State Council issued the “Several Opinions on Strengthening Regulation, Preventing Risks, and Promoting High-Quality Development of the Capital Market,” also known as the new “Guo Jiu Tiao,” which calls for increasing incentives for high-quality dividend-paying companies, taking multiple measures to improve dividend yield, and enhancing dividend stability, sustainability, and predictability, including multiple dividends per year, pre-dividends, and dividends before the Spring Festival.

Wu Zewei stated that the new “Guo Jiu Tiao” explicitly encourages listed companies to pay dividends multiple times a year, strongly guiding banks and other listed companies to improve shareholder returns through policy.

On the other hand, behind the large dividends are the combined effects of rising stock prices and improved performance of listed banks. In the first three quarters of 2025, the 42 A-share listed banks achieved a total operating income of over 4.3 trillion yuan, with more than 60% showing year-on-year growth.

According to research from Orient Securities, in the third quarter of 2025, the net interest margin of listed banks was 1.33%, roughly the same as in the first half of 2025.

Looking at the 2025 performance, as of February 11, 2026, 11 banks have disclosed their performance briefings, including 4 joint-stock banks, 6 city commercial banks, and 1 rural commercial bank. All 11 banks achieved positive net profit attributable to shareholders, with 10 experiencing both revenue and net profit growth, while only CITIC Bank saw a slight 0.55% decline in revenue compared to the previous year.

In terms of total assets, by the end of 2025, China Merchants Bank’s total assets exceeded 13 trillion yuan, Industrial Bank surpassed 11 trillion yuan, and CITIC Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank both joined the “trillion-yuan club.”