At this crucial stage of the in-depth implementation of the strategy to "accelerate the construction of a financial powerhouse" and the high-quality development of the banking industry, the operating logic of commercial banks is undergoing a profound transformation. Commercial banks face both structural challenges such as narrowing net interest margins and diversified sources of risk, and strategic opportunities such as digital transformation and service model upgrades. Traditional evaluation models centered on scale or short-term profits are no longer sufficient to accurately depict the true quality of a bank's development in a complex environment.
Against this backdrop, the "Seminar on the Evaluation Index System for Comprehensive Competitiveness of Commercial Banks," hosted by Puyi Standard and with academic support from the Trust and Wealth Management Research Institute of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, was successfully held in Chengdu on December 29th. At the seminar, Puyi Standard officially released the "Evaluation Index System for Comprehensive Competitiveness of Commercial Banks" and the "Comprehensive Competitiveness Evaluation Report of Commercial Banks (2025)." The seminar invited experts and scholars from several renowned universities, including Sichuan University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, and Southwest Jiaotong University, to engage in in-depth exchanges and discussions on the construction logic, industry application, and future development prospects of the evaluation system.
The organizer, Puyi Standard, provided a systematic interpretation of the overall framework, design concept, and evaluation results of the evaluation system. Based on the context of the comprehensive transformation of commercial bank operations and management, the system uses comprehensive competitiveness as the key observation dimension. It constructs an evaluation framework covering five core modules: operating scale and capital strength, profitability, sound operating capabilities, technological and service innovation capabilities, and brand building capabilities. This achieves full-chain coverage from resource support to performance output, from risk control and compliance to innovation-driven development, and from short-term operations to long-term value. Through multi-dimensional and systematic competitiveness measurement, it scientifically and comprehensively presents the true achievements and competitive landscape of commercial banks in the process of high-quality development. The system's construction fully relies on Puyi Standard's solid industry data foundation and years of evaluation experience, deeply integrating the research accumulation of professors and experts from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in the field of commercial banking. This ensures the professionalism, objectivity, and forward-looking nature of the evaluation system, enabling it to accurately respond to regulatory guidance and effectively align with industry realities.
In the subsequent thematic discussion session, the participating experts engaged in in-depth and pragmatic discussions on five key issues of current industry development, taking into account the dimensional design of the evaluation system, and generated a series of constructive viewpoints:
On the crucial issue of how to balance scale expansion with capital constraints and achieve robust, intrinsic growth, experts at the meeting pointed out that high-quality development of commercial banks must transcend the path dependence on asset size growth and shift towards pursuing robust, endogenous growth under capital constraints. This requires banks to adjust their expansion pace in accordance with the current economic environment and improve the quality of growth. On the asset side, banks need to proactively optimize their structure and allocate credit resources more precisely to key areas of national strategy and high-growth, high-quality customer groups. At the same time, actively responding to the "Five Major Initiatives" is an important lever for balancing development speed and asset quality. Only by relying on the "Five Major Initiatives" to drive capital efficiency can the foundation for high-quality development of commercial banks be firmly established.
Regarding the industry challenges of addressing the continued narrowing of net interest margins and building diversified profit models, the experts at the meeting unanimously agreed that with the deepening of interest rate liberalization, the narrowing of net interest margins for commercial banks has become the new normal. Building more resilient and diversified profit models is an inevitable choice for banks to navigate economic cycles. Commercial banks should, while consolidating their core deposit and loan businesses, strategically accelerate the development of low-capital-consumption, high-customer-stickiness intermediary businesses such as wealth management, investment banking, and transaction finance. At a deeper level, they should promote the transformation of their business model from the traditional "product-centric" to a "customer-centric" comprehensive financial service provider, deeply binding customer value by providing one-stop, customized financial solutions, thereby effectively offsetting the pressure of narrowing interest margins and improving the overall stability of profitability.
Regarding the key question of how to effectively assess the benefits of fintech investment and drive the transformation of innovative achievements into real business value, experts at the meeting pointed out that the banking industry's current investment in technology resources is unprecedented, encompassing various resources such as capital, systems, and human resources. Quantifying technology investment and output requires adhering to the consistency between the two, considering the comprehensive impact of technology investment on internal management efficiency and external business benefits. Furthermore, commercial banks need to establish a technology innovation transformation evaluation mechanism that connects input, output, and effectiveness, comprehensively considering the value of technological innovation from multiple dimensions such as business growth, customer experience, operational efficiency, and risk control. More importantly, it is crucial to break down the barriers between technology and business, establish an agile innovation transformation mechanism, and ensure that technological innovation can be accurately embedded into specific business scenarios and customer journeys, effectively driving business process reengineering, service experience improvement, and business model innovation.
On the strategic issue of how to effectively internalize brand value into customer trust and market competitiveness, the experts at the meeting believed that commercial banks' brand value is the carrier of trust accumulated over a long period of time, and is of great significance for deeply connecting with customers, promoting business expansion, and shaping competitive advantages. Brand building is by no means a simple marketing campaign, but a strategic project that requires top-level design and the participation of all employees. In addition, commercial banks need to establish a clear and unique value proposition at the strategic level and integrate it into the entire chain of corporate governance, product innovation, and service delivery; at the practical level, they need to transform their brand promise into a comprehensive competitiveness that is perceptible to customers and recognized by the market through a series of solid actions such as sincerely fulfilling social responsibility, continuously optimizing customer touchpoint experience, and systematically carrying out reputation management, ultimately empowering the long-term and steady growth of their business.
The release of the "Comprehensive Competitiveness Evaluation Report of Commercial Banks (2025)" at the conference is a landmark achievement of Puyi Standard, which is based on the forefront of the industry and gathers the wisdom of industry, academia and research. Based on the evaluation index system that was thoroughly demonstrated at this seminar, the report comprehensively analyzes the current competitive landscape and development trend of commercial banks. With detailed data support and professional analysis and judgment, it provides the industry with an authoritative reference that combines theoretical depth and practical value.
In the future, Puyi Standard will continue to uphold a professional and open attitude, working with academia and industry to further deepen the construction and application of the evaluation system, and jointly help China's banking industry move steadily and far on the new journey of high-quality development.
Appendix: Puyi Standard Commercial Bank Comprehensive Competitiveness Evaluation Report (2025)
