Bank Of Chongqing Co.,Ltd. (BCQ) reported a notable improvement in its cost of interest-bearing liabilities during the first half of 2026, with the average cost rate declining 41 basis points year-on-year to 1.88%. This reduction outpaces the roughly 30 basis point decrease seen across most A-share listed banks that have disclosed their interim results, positioning the bank's liabiality cost optimization as a sector leader.
During the same period, the average yield on interest-earning assets fell 36 basis points to 3.28%, meaning the liability side outperformed the asset side by 5 basis points. This dynamic directly contributed to a 7 basis point year-on-year recovery in the net interest margin (NIM) to 1.46%. Within the industry context, this rebound carries meaningful weight; regulatory data shows the commercial banking sector's average NIM stood at 1.41% in the second quarter, with city commercial banks at 1.40%, while Bank Of Chongqing Co.,Ltd. exceeded the peer average with a 1.46% half-year NIM.
Examining the quarterly trajectory, analyst estimates from Shenwan Hongyuan suggest the bank's single-quarter NIM reached 1.51% in Q2, up 9 basis points sequentially. This contrasts sharply with the commercial banking average, which rose just 1 basis point quarter-on-quarter, and the 2 basis point uptick for city commercial banks, underscoring the bank's superior margin recovery elasticity among its peers.
The "subtraction" in liability cost management has translated into an "addition" on the revenue side. Net interest income for the half year reached RMB 7.389 billion, a 26.04% year-on-year increase. The single-quarter performance was even more striking: calculations by analysts at Huachuang Securities indicate Q2 net interest income surged 41.3% year-on-year, a substantial jump from the 12.8% growth recorded in Q1. Bolstered by this net interest income contribution, total operating revenue grew 10.79% year-on-year to RMB 8.486 billion, while net profit rose 10.97% to RMB 3.767 billion, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of "double-digit" growth in both metrics.
The successful implementation of this cost reduction effort stems from proactive adjustments to the liability structure. As of the end of June, total deposits at Bank Of Chongqing Co.,Ltd. reached RMB 627.202 billion, up 10.87% from the start of the year, outpacing loan growth by 1.24 percentage points and enhancing the stability of the liability base. During the earnings briefing, bank management confirmed plans to continue "optimizing the asset-liability structure and reducing liability costs" in the second half, projecting a sustained year-on-year recovery in NIM for the full year. This signals that liability cost control is not a short-term maneuver but has been internalized as a core long-term strategy in the bank's balance sheet management.
Asset-side structural optimization also warrants attention. Analyst estimates from Zhongtai Securities show that lending to manufacturing and wholesale/retail sectors grew 19.5% and 20.1% year-on-year respectively in H1, while loans to technology-focused enterprises expanded at a robust 27.3%. These above-average growth rates indicate that incremental assets are increasingly directed toward real-economy segments with more favorable pricing power. Scale expansion, therefore, is no longer a passive choice to compensate for lower prices through volume but rather a deliberate strategy aligning quantity with pricing efficiency.
By the end of June, the bank's consolidated and parent-company total assets stood at RMB 1,108.909 billion and RMB 1,042.818 billion respectively, clarifying its expansion trajectory under a "dual-trillion" framework. Yet what the market should truly recognize is not merely the trillion-yuan milestone itself, but the NIM resilience underpinning it—demonstrating that in the deep waters of interest rate liberalization, liability management capability has replaced scale-driven impulses as the defining competitive differentiator for banks.