As the "year-end gift" eagerly anticipated by working professionals, the substantial year-end bonus has become a battleground for banks and wealth management companies.
A Financial Times reporter's analysis found that since the end of 2025, many institutions, including Postal Savings Bank of China, Bank of Communications, and Ping An Wealth Management, have taken the lead in launching year-end bonus wealth management marketing through a variety of strategies, such as exclusive online activities, a full range of product matrices, and personalized asset allocation solutions.
Industry insiders believe that banks' competition in the year-end bonus wealth management market is not only a key strategy for attracting funds on the liability side, but also an important opportunity to expand intermediary business and enhance customer loyalty. However, investors also need to invest rationally based on their own needs and make careful choices.
Banks are focusing on year-end bonus wealth management.
"There's still more than a month until my year-end bonus is paid out, and I've already started receiving investment recommendations on my mobile banking app." Mr. Zhao, who works in internet operations in Beijing, told reporters that his year-end bonus is expected to be paid out at the end of January 2026. Recently, many banks have launched special investment promotions for year-end bonuses, and he has already started considering how to manage his funds.
Reporters noted that state-owned banks, leveraging their large customer base, took the lead in launching year-end bonus wealth management marketing campaigns, with online exclusive activities becoming the main battleground.
"Year-end bonuses, managed with Bank of Communications." At the end of 2025, Bank of Communications launched a series of year-end bonus-specific wealth management products for investors, offering diverse terms and all products with an R2 (stable) rating. Among them, the "Lingdong Tianli No. 6 Xinxinbao" wealth management product achieved an annualized return of 4.76% over the past three months.
In addition, Bank of Communications branches launched the "'Salary' Action Family 'Share' Year-End Bonus" campaign, with products covering deposits, wealth management, funds, precious metals, insurance, etc., forming a diversified category of "flexible deposit and withdrawal, prudent investment, aggressive investment, and insurance protection".
Postal Savings Bank of China has also launched the "Receiving Your Year-End Bonus, Managing Your Wealth" campaign in the "Payroll" service section of its mobile banking app. The section showcases three exclusive products issued by China Post Wealth Management, covering different liquidity needs. Among them, a year-end bonus wealth management product called "Yousheng Hongjin Minimum Holding Period 7 Days No. 15 Salary Enjoyment C" has achieved an annualized return of 4.76% since its inception.
Joint-stock bank wealth management subsidiaries focus on professional asset allocation services, launch personalized wealth management solutions, and create differentiated competitive advantages.
For example, while Ping An Wealth Management focuses on "pursuing stability," it also emphasizes the "advanced returns" attribute of its year-end bonus wealth management products. Taking the "Safe Start Enhanced Stable Returns" 3-month holding period product available on the Ping An Pocket Bank App as an example, it is positioned as a low-to-medium risk fixed-income enhancement product with R2 rating. On the basis of stable assets such as deposits and bonds, it selectively adds a certain proportion of equity-related assets (preferred stocks, IPOs, etc.) to increase the return elasticity of the investment portfolio.
At the same time, Ping An Wealth Management has also built a product matrix covering "Peace of Mind" (cash-based), "Stable" (fixed income), "Peace of Mind" (fixed income+), and "Peace of Mind" (hybrid) to fully meet the increasingly diverse wealth management needs of investors with different risk preferences.
The product embodies the dual advantages of stability and flexibility.
Compared to previous years, the year-end bonus wealth management marketing strategies of various banks showed significant differences at the end of 2025.
According to Fu Qiaochu, a researcher at Puhui Standard, the changes are mainly reflected in two paths. First, banks are offering one-stop comprehensive asset allocation solutions. Some banks are committed to integrating a full range of financial products, including deposits, wealth management, funds, insurance, and precious metals, to build one-stop solutions covering multiple scenarios for their customers. Second, there is a focus on professional asset allocation services. Furthermore, some banks are not simply listing products in their marketing, but are directly providing allocation strategies and investment logic based on customers' risk preferences and fund usage.
Reporters noted that recently, the Meizhou branch of Guangfa Bank has developed an asset allocation strategy for investors regarding year-end bonus wealth management. It recommends that investors adopt a tiered strategy of "conservative + stable + aggressive" for asset allocation and match appropriate products according to their risk tolerance.
"These changes in marketing practices reflect the transformation of the banking and wealth management industry towards a customer-centric and service-oriented approach," Fu Qiaochu told the Financial Times. "In terms of business models, the industry is undergoing a profound transformation from a past focus on selling single products to a model centered on customers' asset allocation needs. The focus of competition is gradually shifting from comparing product yields to competing on the ability to provide customers with professional and reliable financial planning and support services."
From the perspective of product supply, "stability as the main focus and flexible adaptation" has become the core feature, with low-to-medium risk products occupying the mainstream position. The products cover multiple cycles such as 7 days, 14 days, and 30 days, which can accurately match the diverse idle cycles of year-end bonus funds.
"Overall, the design of year-end bonus-specific wealth management products reflects the banks' customer-oriented matching and combination of existing product systems based on specific funding scenarios. The product structure itself has not deviated from the mainstream market framework, but rather serves to reach more precise customers and respond to their needs," said Fu Qiaochu.
Fu Qiaochu stated that, on the one hand, the products have a highly focused risk profile, with most year-end bonus-themed products concentrated in the low-to-medium risk range, which aligns with the positioning of stable products that dominate the general wealth management market; on the other hand, in terms of investment targets, the core components of the investment portfolios of both types of products heavily rely on fixed-income assets such as government bonds, financial bonds, corporate bonds, and interbank certificates of deposit to build a stable foundation for returns.
Banks launch creative marketing campaigns
In the competition for year-end bonus wealth management, banking institutions continue to upgrade their marketing strategies. In addition to building product matrices and targeted promotions in the early stages, "Golden Gifts" activities have become a new tool to attract and retain funds, creating a synergistic effect with various themed marketing campaigns.
Among the major state-owned banks, ICBC launched the "Asset Upgrade Rewards" program, which includes "Monthly Asset Upgrade Rewards" and "Asset Achievement Rewards," with a maximum reward of one million ICBC iBeans, which can be redeemed for corresponding goods and services in the online mall. From November to December 2025, Bank of Communications launched the "Promoting Consumption and Benefiting People's Livelihoods" asset enhancement reward program. Depending on the average daily asset increase over the past 30 days during the promotion period, consumers can receive payment vouchers ranging from 40 to 600 yuan.
Faced with a barrage of marketing campaigns from banks, such as "rewards for upgrading your investment," many investors easily fall into the trap of "blindly investing for the sake of winning rewards." Industry experts advise that investors should adhere to the principles of "rationality first, suitability paramount" when managing their year-end bonuses, and make investments only after comprehensively considering their own financial needs and risk tolerance.
Fu Qiaochu offers specific advice from three core dimensions: First, examine your own financial situation and capital plan. Investors should prioritize clarifying the intended use and timeline of the funds. Second, objectively assess your true risk tolerance. Generally, investors with a conservative risk appetite tend to allocate their main assets to low- to medium-risk products. Third, maintain independent judgment and be cautious about marketing promotions. Faced with various bank promotions, investors need to remain clear-headed and understand that the "performance benchmark" in the product prospectus is for reference only and is not a guarantee of principal and returns; the final return will fluctuate with market conditions.
"Faced with banks' various marketing tactics, investors need to be clear about their own risk tolerance," Wang Pengbo, chief analyst at Broadcom Consulting, further added. "If the year-end bonus is needed for short-term purposes such as Spring Festival consumption or debt repayment, investors should prioritize highly liquid products such as demand deposits and money market funds. If the funds are not needed for a long period, investors can consider higher-yield products such as time deposits and medium- to long-term wealth management products."
