The surge reflects strict regulatory guidance pushing financial institutions back to core risk resolution as personal and small business loan delinquencies weigh heavily on the banking system.
National AMCs Scale Up Asset Acquisitions Amid Regulatory Shift
China’s financial asset management industry underwent a sharp operational refocus last year. Concurrently, several local AMCs have also disclosed their results, generally showing a trend of focusing on their core business and aiding regional risk mitigation, highlighting an increasingly diversified competitive landscape within the industry. CITIC Financial Asset Management and China Cinda collectively acquired over CNY 540 billion (approximately $78.5 billion) in non-performing assets throughout 2025. CITIC reported new acquisitions of non-performing asset claims worth CNY 242.1 billion (approximately $35.2 billion), representing a 35% year-on-year increase. Meanwhile, China Cinda disclosed that the original book value of its acquired financial non-performing assets exceeded CNY 300 billion (approximately $43.6 billion) for the year. Both national giants targeted specific systemic vulnerabilities, including the reform and risk resolution of small and medium-sized financial institutions, local government debt risk mitigation, and real estate risk resolution. China Cinda reported that it acquired and was entrusted to dispose of non-performing claims from local small and medium-sized banks with principal and interest totaling over CNY 120 billion (approximately $17.4 billion), participating in risk mitigation work for financial institutions in more than ten provinces.
Personal Debt Stress and the Surge in Bulk Transfers
Behind the multi-billion-dollar acquisitions lies mounting distress in China’s personal lending market. What began as a slow-burning concern in early 2024 has become an acute worry in 2025, with housing mortgages, consumer loans, credit card debt, and most critically, small business loans slipping into delinquency at rates not seen since the 2008 financial crisis.
According to data from the People’s Bank of China, household loans stood at 82.84 trillion RMB (US$11.4 trillion) at the end of 2024. Of this, 24.14 trillion RMB was tied to business loans, 21.01 trillion RMB to consumer credit (excluding mortgages) and 37.68 trillion RMB to home loans. China’s top financial regulator placed the overall non-performing loan (NPL) ratio for commercial banks at 1.5% at the end of 2024, translating to roughly 1.24 trillion RMB in problematic personal debt. Analysts warned the true figure may be significantly higher, as many troubled loans are kept afloat through renewed interest payments or quiet restructuring.
As commercial banks scramble to clear deteriorating credit profiles from their books, non-performing loan transfers surged in the first quarter of 2025 to 74.27 billion RMB, nearly matching the entire first half of 2024. Of this, 37.04 billion RMB came from personal loans—a staggering 760% jump year on year. Consumer loans made up nearly three-quarters of these transfers, followed closely by credit card and personal business loans.
Corporate Balance Sheets and Regional Performance
The financial strain reshaping the distressed debt market has altered traditional buyer dynamics. For the first time, China Cinda Asset Management Co. Ltd. — a state-owned national distressed asset management company — entered the top ten list of active buyers of personal NPLs, a space normally dominated by smaller, regional AMCs. Bulk transfers of personal NPLs only began as a pilot in 2021, marking the start of an institutional approach to what had long been a fragmented and opaque problem.
CITIC Financial Asset Management saw its total assets exceed CNY 1 trillion, reaching CNY 1.06 trillion (approximately $153.6 billion) by the end of 2025. After excluding one-off factors, the company achieved total operating income of CNY 80.48 billion (approximately $11.7 billion), a 43% year-on-year increase, and net profit attributable to shareholders of CNY 11.09 billion (approximately $1.6 billion). Total revenue from its core non-performing asset management business was CNY 69.41 billion (approximately $10.1 billion), surging 108.5% after adjusting for one-off factors. CITIC Chairman Liu Zhengjun emphasized at the earnings conference the need to move beyond a simple asset trading mindset and proactively seek and allocate quality assets to navigate cycles with good assets. In 2025, the company’s non-performing asset balance decreased by 22% from the beginning of the year, and its non-performing ratio fell by 0.41 percentage points.
The other giant, China Cinda, saw its total assets surpass CNY 1.7 trillion by the end of 2025. The company reported operating revenue of CNY 72.17 billion (approximately $10.5 billion) and net profit of CNY 3.56 billion (approximately $517.5 million) for the year, a 17.32% year-on-year increase. Its non-performing asset management business generated revenue of CNY 41.94 billion (approximately $6.1 billion), up 2.8% year-on-year.
“Please, just pay the interest.”
Branch manager of a major state-owned bank in eastern China
Regional asset management companies also reported operational results showing a distinct focus on returning to their core business and serving regional economies.
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