(Yicai) April 13 -- Several of China’s major state-owned banks have started to omit data on private banking, once regarded as the ‘crown jewel’ of their retail banking business, from their annual reports as they reshape their retail operations and shift their focus away from assets under management toward overall service capabilities and long-term client relationships.

Four out of China’s six state-owned banks, namely Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, did not disclose key private banking metrics such as the number of clients and assets under management in their 2025 annual reports, according to Yicai research. These two indicators used to be seen as important windows into how big a bank’s high-net-worth client business is.

This is the first time that these four lenders have dropped core private banking data from their annual reports. However, the number of private banking clients is not a mandatory disclosure item, so banks can decide for themselves whether to publish it, a banking industry insider said.

Competition in private banking is shifting toward more long-term value, such as service capabilities and customer relationships, several industry insiders interviewed by Yicai said. Client value is no longer measured simply by assets under management, which is a key reason why state-owned banks are no longer disclosing private banking scale data, and are instead emphasizing their overall service capabilities and long-term client value.

For example, the Agricultural Bank of China said in its annual report that it is upgrading its "private banking +" platform and focusing on three main areas, namely wealth management, customer group management and ecological integration. The goal is to build a service network that encompasses both its private banking centers and wealth management centers.

China Construction Bank emphasized in its yearly report that its private banking business will focus on core services such as asset allocation, family advisory and corporate financing. The lender also plans to strengthen tiered client management and push its family trust and insurance trust businesses to a growth rate of over 20 percent a year.

While disclosing private banking growth still helps show business resilience and boost brand competitiveness, the industry’s focus has shifted, an insider from a joint-stock bank told Yicai. Compared to the earlier emphasis on growing client numbers, metrics such as assets under management per client, asset stability and contributions to fee-based income are becoming more important measures of private banking quality.

Strategic Shift

Private banking in commercial banks is transitioning from single product sales to full lifecycle asset allocation services, Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China, told Yicai.

Banks need to speed up their expansion into wealth inheritance tools such as family trusts and charitable trusts, while also focusing more on specific client segments such as entrepreneurs and tech start-up owners, providing them with customized, comprehensive financial solutions, Lou said.

In the future, private banking is likely to see greater concentration among leading players, while others compete by carving out specialized niches, said Xue Hongyan, a special researcher at Jiangsu Su Merchants Bank. Growth will shift from expanding outward to internal development, and service models will become more advisory-driven and investment banking-oriented.

Banks need to move away from being product sales-oriented to focusing on customer wealth management, Xue said. They should reshape their performance evaluation and incentive systems to improve client experience and build long-term advantages in the wealth management sector.

Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China, along with other major joint-stock banks, still disclosed private banking data in their 2025 annual reports. Bank of Communications reported that as of the end of last year, it had 105,100 private banking clients, a jump of 11.6 percent year on year, and its assets under management surged 10.3 percent to CNY1.4 trillion (USD209.2 billion).

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor