Overview
China Merchants Bank is a Shenzhen-headquartered Chinese commercial bank founded in 1987. It provides retail and corporate banking, alongside financial-markets, wealth-management, asset-management, custody and investment-banking services. Its stated core value is “being customer-centric and creating value for customers,” and its strategic vision emphasizes innovation and differentiated services.[1][2][3]
The bank’s network is concentrated in mainland China, with branches in financial centres including Hong Kong, New York, London, Singapore, Luxembourg and Sydney. It also operates businesses in investment banking, financial leasing and asset management through subsidiaries. In 2025, the group reported RMB331.8 billion in operating income and 121,585 employees.[4][5][6][7] [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Products & services
China Merchants Bank’s retail products include the All-in-one multifunction debit card, credit cards, residential mortgages, consumer loans and micro-finance loans. Its wealth services range from Sunflower Wealth Management to private banking, while the CMB APP, CMB Life APP and All-in-one Net provide digital banking access. The bank also distributes wealth-management products through its Zhao Cai Hao open platform.[8][9][10][11]
For corporate and institutional customers, the bank offers payment and settlement services, cash management, investment and financing, supply-chain and cross-border finance, asset management, custody and investment banking. Its financial-markets activities include client trading services.[8]
Retail finance generated RMB192.445 billion in net operating income in 2024, reported as 63.09% of the bank’s net operating income. Within retail finance, wealth-management fees were RMB20.190 billion and bank-card fees were RMB16.634 billion.[12] [8][9][10][11][12]
Geographic presence
China Merchants Bank is headquartered in Shenzhen and operates primarily across mainland China. Its branch network spans the Yangtze River Delta, Bohai Rim, Pearl River Delta and western Taiwan Straits coast, Northeast, Central and Western China. It also has branches in Hong Kong, New York, London, Singapore, Luxembourg and Sydney, as well as representative offices in New York and Taipei.[13][14]
In 2024, the bank reported RMB4.29 billion of operating income in its overseas geographic segment, about 1.3% of its RMB334.49 billion total. Its geographic disclosure also reports income for mainland regions, the head office and subsidiaries separately, so the overseas figure should not be read as a complete country-by-country breakdown of group revenue.[15] [13][14][15][15]
Business segments
China Merchants Bank reports three operating segments: wholesale finance, retail finance and other business. Wholesale finance serves companies, government agencies and financial institutions through lending and deposits, payments and cash management, trade finance, investment banking, custody, interbank activities and financial-market services. Retail finance serves individual customers through lending and deposits, bank cards, wealth management and private banking. Other business includes investment properties and certain subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures.[16][17][18]
In 2024, retail finance generated approximately 58.8% of reported operating income, wholesale finance 40.5%, and other business 0.7%. These shares are calculated from the operating-segment figures of RMB196.8 billion, RMB135.4 billion and RMB2.3 billion, respectively.[19] [16][17][18][19][19][19][19]
Company history
China Merchants Bank was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Shenzhen. Its shares began trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in April 2002 and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2006.[20][21]
The bank expanded internationally in 2008, establishing a New York branch and acquiring a majority stake in Hong Kong’s Wing Lung Bank. Wing Lung became a wholly owned subsidiary in January 2009. China Merchants Bank also established a financial leasing subsidiary in 2008 and expanded into consumer finance through Merchants Union Consumer Finance, which received approval to begin operations in 2015.[22][23][24][25] [20][21][22][23][24][25]
Sources
Continue your research
From company context to financial detail.
Explore original sources and worldwide fundamental financial data and intelligence with Finbar.
Explore CHINA MERCHANTS BANK in Finbar ↗