Distinguished investors, analysts, media friends, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome all of you to China Construction Bank's 2026 Interim Results Announcement.

I'd like to thank you sincerely for your continued trust, interest and support to CCB. Today's results announcement has 2 venues in Beijing and Hong Kong, which are connected via video link.

We're also broadcasting live online for our shareholders and the public. Joining us in Hong Kong today include Mr.

Zhang Yi, President of CCB; Mr. Tang Shuo, Deputy President of CCB.

Joining us in Beijing included Deputy President, Mr. Ji Zhihong; Deputy President, Ms.

Han Jing; and the Deputy President, Mr. Lei Ming.

We are also joined by our nonexecutive directors, representatives from independent directors as well as the senior colleagues from the head office and also Hong Kong entities. My name is Li Jianjiang, Deputy President of CCB.

The interim results of 2026 of CCB were officially released to the public earlier today. We will begin this afternoon with opening remarks from Mr.

Zhang Yi followed by open Q&A session. Now we will invite President Zhang.

Distinguished investors, analysts and media friends, good afternoon. Welcome all of you to CCB 2026 Interim Results Announcement.

First, I would like to thank you sincerely for your trust, interest and support to the CCB over the time. Since this year, CCB sticks to Chairman's Xi's spirit of developing China and also executed the principles of the Party Congress and also the Central Government's conferences.

And we also uphold the operation philosophies and risk management philosophies. So we emphasize on three abilities, pursue steady growth, improve efficiency and also stick to the high-quality development.

For the first half of 2026, the operation performance reached our expectation with a steady growth and also scale economy and coordinated growth. The capital also has a very steady growth.

The asset AUM also is at CNY 30 trillion. And also the liability side also increased healthily.

The operation also improved. We have operating income of CNY 426 billion.

Profit before provision is CNY 328 billion, increased by 10.48% and 13% Y-o-Y, respectively. Net profit, CNY 171 billion, up 5.56%, increased by 1.88 percentage points by quarter 1.

NIM is 1.37%, ROA 0.74%, ROE, 9.52%, capital adequacy ratio, 19.42%. Cost-to-income ratio 22.17%, continue to be industry-leading.

The structure optimization accelerates transformation momentum. The asset allocation is precise and efficient.

The gross loans to customers is CNY 29.34 trillion. Financial investments, CNY 13.99 trillion, increasing by 5.65% and 8.48% respectively.

The green and technology-related loans continue to increase, and the loans are also very healthy. We have effective control of liability costs through expansion of low-cost settlement, deposits, integration and optimization of the wealth management products and deposits and various other management measures.

The interest-bearing liabilities cost ratio is down by 30 basis points on a Y-o-Y basis. Earnings sources also stands at CNY 310 billion, up 8.46%.

We continue to seize opportunities of wealth management market. Now net interest income also stands at CNY 115 billion, up 16.31%, increased by 1.63 percentage points Y-o-Y.

The efficiency and quality of operations is also increased and strengthened. We maintain very disciplined control of general expenses, enhanced financial support in customer marketing and the technology operation.

Cost-to-income ratio fell by 1.55 percentage points. The risk management is robust and effective.

The net NPL ratio is only 1.29%. Provision coverage ratio is 8.69%.

We have a very sufficiency ability against risk. We also continue to enhance the balanced short- and long-term capital objectives by providing capital replenishment.

These performance results also laid a solid foundation for sharing our results with shareholders. We also emphasize our dividend.

And we have accumulated the cash dividend at CNY 52 billion for the first half. And we also suggest -- the cash dividend -- interim cash dividend of RMB 2.01 per 10 shares, including tax.

The total dividend is CNY 52.582 billion. Dividend payout ratio increased from 30% to 31%.

These will be reviewed by the shareholders' meeting. Now I would like to report the development plan for the second half.

First, we will strengthen support for the real economy, while enhancing quality and efficiency of financial service. We emphasize on the 5 key priorities.

Technology finance is also leading in the industry. We will build the -- our management mechanism centering around different -- 5 aspects.

We have the 5-pronged technology finance framework. We will also continue to optimize the technology precision, and we have realized double-digit growth in technology lending.

We also rely on various measures. We have also issued 87 tranches of technology loans, satisfying various demands for these technology industries at various stages.

We also respond to the policy regulated and provide orderly equity financing services for emerging and future industries. In terms of green finance, we also have optimized the green financing channel.

We have also green loan balance of CNY 6.53 trillion, up 8.95%. We underwrote 34 tranches of green nonfinancial bonds totaling CNY 15 billion.

We also issued green bonds overseas of USD 1 billion, and offshore Renminbi bonds of RMB 3 billion. We maintained MSCI AAA ESG rating.

In terms of inclusive finance, we also try to continue to optimize the support to small and micro enterprises. We serve 3.82 million customers of micro and small enterprises.

In terms of pension finance, the corporate pension accounts increased by 33%. We also launched the Wellness Living platform covering various scenarios.

We also enhanced the AUM, especially the Pillar 2 AUM of CCB, it increased by 10.7%, standing at CNY 800 billion. In terms of digital finance, we deployed AI across various scenarios covering marketing, customer service, investment advisory, operation, risk control and corporate management, covering over 600 scenarios.

We also enhanced the online platform development. We have personal customers of 592 million and the CNY cost consumption value is also around CNY 8 billion, and it also increased by 13% and 14.68%.

We also emphasized on some key priorities optimizing the smart economy, the new infrastructure related financial services. We also refined the Shenzhen Intelligent Manufacturing and Shenzhen Strong Foundation initiatives by the end of June.

We also increased the manufacturing sector loan at RMB 4 trillion up 17.5%. In terms of private enterprises, the loan reached CNY 7.36 trillion, up 9.42%.

We also actively supported major national -- regional development covering Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River and GBA, et cetera. The [Foreign Language] socially related finance services also increased.

We continue to enhance our support to the urban renewal initiatives. We also support the domestic demand expansion and consumption growth, actively implement the interest subsidy policies for the first half.

We have issued CNY 1.08 trillion of new loans to service sector. In some key areas, the new loans also exceeded CNY 33 billion.

The consumption spending eligible for personal consumer loan interest subsidy policies exceeded CNY 130 billion. We also support residents' essential housing needs and diversified needs for better housing.

Residential mortgage reached CNY 5.92 trillion. Issuance of residential mortgage is over CNY 300 billion, keeping industry-leading position.

We also deepened the integration of financial services for consumer spending scenarios surrounding on the HomeLife and AutoLife, we continue to enrich our supply chain. The personal consumer loan balance reached CNY 806 billion, up by 14.596%.

Credit card loans is at CNY 934 billion, and the livelihood-related consumption sectors also exceeded -- loans also exceeded CNY 1 trillion, covering elderly care, cultural tourism, sports, health care and education, facility disburse of more than CNY 1 billion in government consumption subsidies. We also have a stronger support for high-level opening up, serving the free trade zone and the free trade port.

We also facilitate the cross-border quick loan and RMB scenarios. The International business loan balance reached CNY 2 trillion, up 24.57%.

We also provided cross-border quick loans to the small and medium foreign trade enterprises of CNY 53 billion. The loan balance to Belt and Road countries and regions reached CNY 73 billion.

We also support development of Hainan Free Trade Port and Shanghai International Financial Center, support Hong Kong in consolidating its position as International Financial Center and actively promoted development of offshore renminbi market. Second, we also maintained a customer-centric approach with continued enhancement of comprehensive service capability.

We have further streamlined the 4 integration mechanism, continue to advance the financial banking. The underwriting volume of nonfinancial enterprise debt, financing instrument reached CNY 268 billion.

The M&A loan balance reached CNY 287 billion. Equity Investment business also advanced in an orderly manner.

The Corporate and Retail Banking business is also enhancing their synergy. The social security cards and the disbursement customers and the merchant transaction volume also continued to increase.

The AUM payroll disbursement customers increased by CNY 663.7 billion. Net increase of social security card exceeded 3 million.

We have met the need of domestic and foreign currency and domestic to foreign currency integrated accounts increased by 144,200 customers and we have achieved a double-digit growth in international settlement customers and international settlement volume. Cross-border RMB settlement volume reached CNY 4.25 trillion.

Improved group-wide integration efficiency, overseas commercial banking institutions recorded net profit of CNY 9.5 billion, up 21.87% year-on-year. In the first half, overseas branches have recorded net revenue of CNY 9.5 billion and subsidiaries recorded a net profit of CNY 18.2 billion, up 21.87% and 28.95%.

We have focused on 3 customer groups, government, enterprises and personal customers. We have developed model projects for 12 key ecosystem clusters, including universities, hospitals, social security cards, et cetera.

We have seen an additional 792,900 corporate customers, an increase of over 5 million personal customers. Our products are better in meeting customer demand.

We have seized the opportunity of diversified wealth management. We focused on customers' asset allocation needs.

We offer investment advisory services so we can help them manage their wealth long term. Wealth management scale exceeded RMB 5.3 trillion.

Wealth management customers added 5.57 million. Private Banking customers AUM achieved double-digit growth.

Security customers for the third-party security custody services of trading settlement funds exceeded CNY 100 million. Assets under custody reached CNY 25.45 trillion.

Thirdly, we strengthened risk and compliance management and further consolidated the foundation for sound development. We improved risk and internal control management system.

We focus on the overall risk system problems. So we can establish a proactive and smart risk management system.

We strengthened our policies so we can respond to the key businesses. We strengthened the penetrative risk management across overseas institutions and subsidiaries.

We have strengthened the review of differentiated risks, and we have conducted evaluation management for corporate customers. And we have seen higher quality in new loans, we optimized the asset quality management and NPL disposal mechanisms and broadened market-based disposal channels.

NPL is 1.29%, down by 0.02 percentage points with key areas seeing controllable risks. We have adapted us -- ourselves to the rapid change of technology and risk profile so we can establish a risk management platform.

And we have developed AI agents for customer risk identification and structured risk analysis, and we strengthened the foundation for compliance management, and we have improved the core systems, including money laundering review and compliance review. Looking forward, we are positive on the fundamentals of Chinese economy.

But we are very aware of the pressure and challenges in our operation. We will try our best to do a good job in the following areas.

We will closely follow national strategic priorities and foster new drivers of transformation and development, advance the 5 priorities and seize the 2 key tasks and 2 renewals, support major projects under the 15th Five-Year Plan and development of the 6 networks, we will fully support the expansion of domestic demand, industrial upgrading and the growth of private micro businesses. We will strengthen our capability in cross-border capability, and we will enhance our promotion initiatives and reach the bank-wide home living and auto living ecosystems and brand-specific consumption scenarios.

We will deepen inclusive livelihood finance to better meet residents' financial needs in housing, education, health care and child care. We will accelerate business model transformation and deepen integrated customer service capability.

We will strengthen integration across commercial and investment banking, and we will strengthen corporate retail banking, and we will work with governments and corporations in meeting the financial needs of their employees. We will seize the opportunities from domestic and foreign currency operations.

We will strengthen global group-wide collaboration and embed integrated services throughout the customer journey. We will further deepen the ecosystem's industrial supply chains, industrial business customer service model, focus on core supply chain anchor enterprises and upstream and downstream supply chain participants, strengthen ecosystem integration and ecosystem-based operations, deeply advance the AI initiatives, accelerate digital and intelligent transformation and build an enterprise-level omnichannel service and operation system.

We will strengthen operational synergies and enhance value creation. Asset business, maintain a balance among scale, pricing and risk.

We will align loan growth with monetary policy and optimize funding duration and bond investment returns. Liability business, we will maintain alignment among scale, pricing and quality, further strengthen funding stability initiatives.

Intermediary business, we will maintain category-specific policies across the integration of intelligence, technology, equity, debt financing. We will seize the opportunities from the capital market and consumption market, and we will enhance business lines, including wealth management, consumer finance, settlement payment, investment banks, et cetera.

We will safeguard the bottom line thinking of the worst scenario and strengthen risk and compliance management. We will strengthen our capability and mitigate financial risks.

And we will focus on key areas and effectively identify and mitigate potential risks, enhance integrated online and offline risk control capabilities. We will continue to improve the compliance management framework and promote the deep integration of consumer protection across the entire business processes, so all the business segments can operate in a stable and regulated way.

Ladies and gentlemen. CCB comes from the background of construction.

This year marks the first year in the 15th Five-Year period. We will integrate our development as a company with the modernization Of China.

So we will return to customers with high-quality financial services and let's work together for a robust and more sustainable future. Thank you.

Thank you, President Zhang. Now we will open the floor for questions.

We will alternate questions between Hong Kong and Beijing to allow more analysts and media journalists.

[Operator Instructions] Question 1 comes from Hong Kong. Let's take the question from the gentleman in the third row.

From Morgan Stanley. I have a question regarding operational revenue.

Your operational revenue and profit have recorded very good momentum. What are the drivers behind this robust performance?

Looking forward, what's your expectation for the operational revenue profit going forward in this year?

President Zhang will take that question.

Thank you, Mr. Xu.

CCB seized the opportunity of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and we seized the opportunity in high-quality integration of business groups. We have seen some achievements in the first half in high-quality development in net profit and net profit attributable to shareholders, up 5.56% and 4.62% year-on-year, respectively, and higher than the first quarter by 1.8 and 1.09 percentage points.

Operational revenue is up 10.48%. It has been 2-digit growth for 2 consecutive quarters.

We have more diversified source of revenue, net interest income and noninterest income have become our 2 drivers. Our core indicators are very balanced.

ROE, ROA, NIM, cost revenue ratio and capital adequacy ratio have all kept a very good level. There are 5 reasons.

First, we optimize the allocation of asset and liability. We have implemented very proactive and flexible asset liability allocation strategy with 8.46% growth in net interest income, 0.33 percentage points higher than the first quarter.

We have seen higher volume, higher prices and more stable structure. Interest-bearing assets has grown stably.

We have supported the real economy. Interest-bearing assets have surpassed CNY 45 trillion in daily balance.

As for price, we have seen a higher NIM. In the first half, NIM was 1.37%, 1 and 3 basis points higher, respectively, than the first quarter and the whole year of last year.

The new loans have seen very stable interest rates. On the liability side, balance between volume and price has been observed.

We have seen higher percentage in high-yield assets we have optimized asset portfolio, loan and financial investments have seen higher percentage. We focused on new productive forces and integration of finance and governance.

Personal consumption, personal operational loans have realized 2-digit growth. We optimized the loop of corporate funds.

Our demand deposit has seen a very good level in its percentage. We have been very flexible in adapting asset portfolio.

Secondly, we promoted the transformation of revenue structure with high growth in noninterest income. We have expanded the source of revenue.

Noninterest -- net noninterest income is up by 16.31% for two reasons. Commission fees are stable.

We seized the opportunity of wealth management, asset management so we can improve on customer loyalty with professional services, fund, custody, CTS, these business lines have realized a 2-digit growth. We seized the opportunity of consumer markets.

Third-party payment and credit cards have seen stable progress. We increased efficiency of settlement services.

On the other hand, other noninterest income have maintained good momentum that is attributed to our efforts in asset allocation and improvement in transaction capabilities. Equity investment has been performing very well as well.

Thirdly, operational management, cost and expenses. We have reduced costs and improved efficiency, we give priority to technology and customer marketing.

We use the technology and digital tools for corporate operation, and we have strengthened evaluation of expenses, cost income structure is 22.17%, down by 1.55 percentage points. We also have a very strict risk control and the quality of assets is very steady.

We have applied a very prudent operation philosophy and principles to select the customers in a more prudent way. We also improved the risk control system.

The NPL ratio is 1.29%, down by 0.02 percentage points. Provision coverage rate, 238%, up by 5.54 percentage points.

Our ability of risk control continue to be improved. Fifth, we emphasize on customer-centered operation mechanism.

We continue to cover the whole life cycle of customer service, improve the financial service system, and we have kept very good momentum. The RMB settlement account is standing at CNY 18.91 million, increased by CNY 1.02 million compared with the end of last year.

The personal clients AUM also exceeded CNY 24 trillion, up by CNY 1 trillion. And it has also kept the double-digit growth.

The retail mobile banking also increased by 15% in terms of the activity ratio. The international business loan also has realized a growth of over 20%.

All these have laid solid foundation for our operation in the second half. And looking ahead, we will continue to emphasize on the 5 chapters, optimize technology finance service system, improve investment banking, wealth management and financial markets transaction ability, enhance the differentiated service ability, also improved our opening up of high-quality service.

On the other hand, we should also pursue sustainable growth. We should also upheld the right philosophy and balance our development.

We also will improve the net interest income to a better level and also realize a steady growth of non-net interest income. We will continue to improve the linear management and cooperation ability and continue to enhance the risk identification and alarming system.

Thank you.

Thank you, President Zhang. Now I would like to invite question from Beijing.

The lady from the third row on the left.

I'm from China Securities Daily. I'm Su Shiyu.

We have seen that for the first half of CCB, the loan -- also you maintained very steady growth. So I want to ask about the loan disbursement aspects.

And now the financing structure is changing. So I want to know about the loan strategy of CCB in the future.

So I would like to invite Ms. Han Jing, our VP in Beijing to answer.

So about the loan disbursement, President Zhang has also given very detailed introduction in his overall speech in the beginning, and he has also summarized the key parts in the first question. So now I would like to further supplement some details.

For the first half, it's very steady, and there are 2 optimization. For the one steady, the total volume is increasing steadily.

By the end of June, the loan scale stands at CNY 29 trillion, up by CNY 1.5 trillion with an increased level of 5.65%. Loan also takes up 60% of our asset.

And the growth of loan is also serving the real economy on the same -- in the same time, it is also laying a very solid foundation for the increase of our revenue and income. For the optimization, the overall volume is quite optimal.

Our balance of customer -- retail banking and also corporate banking is very balanced. The corporate loan is over CNY 20 trillion, up by CNY 1.54 trillion compared with last year, is up by 8.2%.

The retail loan also is standing at CNY 9.19 trillion, taking up 31.31%, is over 1/3 corporate, 1/3 private. And so it's quite optimal.

And for the second optimization, we also invest in consumption, investment and the premium sectors. What do we mean by that?

First, we emphasize on the 5-pronged aspects. The loan is also increasing faster than other aspects.

For example, tech finance, we are also determined to be the leading bank to invest in tech finance. We also have 3 system promotion.

We have increased -- we have realized double-digit growth in technology-related loan. And we also invest in premium sectors, for example, the advanced manufacturing sectors and also other sectors related to the modern industry system development.

So we have also implemented the comprehensive service strategy. The results are very obvious.

Our loan to the manufacturing sectors exceeded CNY 4 trillion, up -- with a growth rate of 17.95%. The modern service industry and the modern infrastructure loans also have new changes.

We also invest in the consumption for the consumption-related loans, we also are keeping the industry-leading position. We also stick to high-quality opening up.

We have the Shenzhen cross-border comprehensive financial service platform. For the first half, the trade financing and cross-border financing also contributed over 1/5 of the increment of the loans for the whole bank.

You also mentioned the direct financing structure is also changing. Actually, that's a result of our economic structure transformation.

It is also the result of the deepened reform of supply chain in the finance business. Next, we will also follow the trend, and we will target at the various demands of the sectors like globalization and more smart related services.

We also emphasize on the integration of investments and also the foreign and local currency integration of the group. So we will also diversify financing channels at -- in different manners.

We will also construct the modern industry system, and we will also try to coordinate with the changing financial markets and we emphasize on the characteristics of the CCB. We will also orient towards the 15th Five-Year Plan, including the 6 networks, the key areas and key projects.

And we will have also responded to a series of incremental policies, continue to guarantee the sustained and robust growth of loan disbursement. In the same time, we will also stick to the operation principle, emphasizing on the balanced development of value and the prices on the basis of prudent risk control so that we can improve the high-quality development.

Thank you.

Now I would like to invite question from Hong Kong. The lady from the fourth row on the right.

Thank you. I'm from Phoenix TV.

I'm [ Wang Shu ]. We have seen that CCB has a very remarkable results in terms of NIM.

So can you further elaborate on that? Apart from the external market factors, what you have done to differentiate yourself and also judge the overall momentum?

Okay. I would like to invite President Zhang to answer the question.

Thank you, Ms. Wang, for your question.

For the first half, the NIM is 1.37%. It has also increased by 3 basis points compared with -- on a Y-o-Y basis.

The quarter 2, it also increased by 1.38%. So on the row, our NIM level is also leading in our industry.

We have realized the comprehensive balance of volume, price and also structure. That is a result of our economic development momentum and various other external factors.

It is a result of our active management internally. We stick to value creation.

We dynamically and flexibly enhance the balanced management of assets and liabilities. We also take differentiated measures to improve our NIM level.

We also have the 2 integration and 1 integration strategy. First, we optimize the allocation of the major asset class.

We -- based on the market trends, we dynamically adjust the asset allocation. For the core asset growth, the growth is exceeding the growth of the group assets by 2.8 percentage points.

The balance is standing at 91.6%. Just now, Ms.

Han mentioned that the loan takes up over 60% of our assets. So with these 2, it takes up 91.9% combined.

Second is to optimize the credit and loan maturity structure. By the end of June, for the domestic loans, the long and mid long-term loan takes up 71%.

It increased by 0.05 percentage points. Third, we improved the comprehensive pricing ability.

We try to determine the loan interest rate based on the comprehensive pricing service and also the transaction. On the liability side, we also implement a strategy of control the high risk.

We emphasize on low-cost settlement capital management, improve the settlement network optimization and all the new platform development. We also enhanced the physical local bonds capital connection.

We try to leverage on the major capital to improve the high-quality capital pool. For the first half, the savings deposit balance increased by CNY 54 billion also have a Y-o-Y increase of CNY 38 billion.

We -- secondly, we also connect the time deposit capital, improve the optimal circulation of this capital. We also provided other sales of the other wealth management products.

For the first half, the domestic time deposit interest payout rate is 1.66%, down by 34 percentage points on a Y-o-Y basis. Third, we also actively and effectively control the high-cost liability.

The interest rate of the other financial organizations deposits decreased by 19 percentage points. For the whole year, we are confident to optimize our active management of these aspects.

First, we will balance the total volume. We will fully integrate into the modern industry system, adapt to the new changes of the market environment and also client needs.

We will continue to unlock the efficiency of operation for stable growth of NIM. Secondly, stable pace.

We will make sure that our assets are aligned with market competition. We will take a balanced approach in credit and bond markets.

The key is to make sure that cash management and payroll services settlement, fund growth, we will optimize the structure. We will focus on the 5 financial priorities, infrastructure, manufacturing industry, among other fundamental sectors, we will flexibly explore the allocation of financial investment vehicles.

We will try our best to increase the percentage of high-yield assets. Fourthly, liability.

We will focus on lowering cost and optimizing structure. Agile management is key.

We will make sure that we flexibly adjust duration, pace and categories of liabilities. So the interest-bearing assets would be placed at a reasonable level.

We will take another question from Beijing.

From CICC. I have a question regarding financial investment.

In the first half, we've seen very good growth in bond investment. Can you please talk about bond investment overall?

Now the market is in a low interest rate environment. So going forward, how will you take an active approach in this regard?

Mr. Ji from Beijing will take the question.

Thank you for the question. In 2026, we are faced with lower growth in market rates and lower credit spread.

But we have seen good momentum in the business segment. We have aligned ourselves with the change in social financing structure, so we can coordinate investment transaction and customer services, and this will lay a good foundation for strengthening profitability.

There are a few aspects. Number one, we strengthened investment allocation, enabling the development of real economy.

On one hand, with national economic and fiscal policies, we focus on government investment. So we enhance the security, liquidity and efficiency of these assets.

In the first half, we added over CNY 1 trillion of investment in government bonds. And given the increasing demand from corporations, we increased the allocation of credit bonds, primarily in advanced manufacturing, technology innovation, green low-carbon, and pension industry.

This is especially obvious in technology and innovation. Secondly, we've taken an active approach in portfolio management, so we can take our advantage of transaction operations.

And CCB pays higher importance to bond portfolio. We focus on coupon rate and strengthen transaction in categories, types of bonds, duration and issuance, we will try our best to take advantage of them.

In the first half, there were 3 features. Number one, we seized good time opportunities.

In the first half, when the interest rates were on the rise, we implemented long-term allocation of mid- to long-term duration bonds. Secondly, we seized the opportunity of market volatilities.

In Q2, when the prices were high through secondary market transactions, we optimized our portfolio structure. Thirdly, we seized the opportunity of refined management.

Given the yield curve, we flexibly adjust the strategy of investments. So our capability has been enhanced in mitigating rate risks and profitability.

Thirdly, we leveraged on our integrated services. So on the one hand, we enhanced income.

And on the other hand, it becomes an important driver in operational transformation. So bond underwriting investments, these are deeply integrated in the corporation customers, institutional customers and peer customers as part of integrated finance.

So this will position us in a better way to meet the diversified needs from customers. For example, in H1 this year, for example, in Panda bonds, in the first year, we saw the amount doubling in the first half and bond issuance and bond underwriting volume has increased by 174%.

We offer asset allocation and risk management services to customers in China and overseas, so customers can face market risks and volatility in a robust way. Going forward, we will focus on 3 areas in bond market businesses.

First of all, as a big bank, we will help the government implement policies supporting the demand of real economy. Secondly, as a market maker in foreign currency and bond markets, we will provide liquidity.

Secondly, we will offer diversified investment vehicles and cross-border platforms. We will enrich transaction strategies, strengthening return in our investment portfolio, strengthening cross-border investment, especially in underwriting Panda bonds.

We will help Chinese companies going overseas and also foreign companies operating in China. Thirdly, we will develop a professional team specialized in investment transactions and sales.

We will strengthen the use of IT and other technologies, strengthening the business capability of our investment and financial business.

Thank you, Mr. Ji.

Now we will take the question from Hong Kong. The fourth row to my left.

From UBS. I have a question regarding asset quality.

In the first half, CCB's asset quality was very stable. As we know, China's economy is faced with multifold challenges, especially in consumer market, retail banking and personal finance, how do you look at the asset quality in the second half?

How do you enhance risk management? How do you make sure that your stable development momentum can be sustained?

I will take that question. CCB is committed to coordinated development.

We will think of the worst scenario, strengthening the management of credit risks. With a better risk management system, we can serve the real economy with high-quality services.

Asset quality has been stable. We have very good risk mitigation capability.

As Mr. Zhang said, as of the end of June 2026, NPL of CCB Bank was 1.29%, down by 0.02 percentage points compared with the end of last year.

Provision coverage ratio of 238.9%, up 5.4 percentage points. We have made arrangements in 2 aspects.

Number one, we will serve the real economy. We will take targeted measures.

In credit finance, we will align our services with the 5 priorities in national financial policy. We will strengthen technology innovation and investment in advanced manufacturing, green finance and infrastructure, et cetera.

With better credit policies, we will develop loyal customer base, serving retail customers like inclusive finance and micro and small enterprises. Based on the structural and cyclical features of risks, we will optimize our strategy so the business management and risk management can be coordinated.

On the other hand, we focus on key areas and strengthen the all-cycle management of credit risks. We will focus on the new trends in credit risks so we can dynamically optimize long-term mechanisms of risk management.

In corporate finance, in key regions, key customer groups, key projects, we can manage in different dimensions. With prechecks and pre-warning capabilities, we can form the synergy across the bank.

In retail banking, we enhanced the management of corporate credit risks. We will improve efficiency both online and offline.

We will strengthen our strategy of granting loans and during loan issuance, we will establish a complete risk warning system. And after loan issuance, we will strengthen collection system so we can improve on the quality of disposal.

Going forward in the second half, CCB will be committed to stable progress so we can strengthen our risk control system, which is smart and proactive. So we can build a very robust risk management foundation for high-quality growth.

Now we will shift back to the Beijing venue. This gentlemen in the fifth row on my left.

From People's Daily. Now we have seen the shift of personal deposits.

I'd like to ask about the renewal of personal deposits in the first half. What were the new trends and faced with the low interest rate environment, what measures have been taken by CCB?

Mr. Tang will take the question.

Thank you. I believe this question is of great concern of investors.

In this year, CCB is committed to serving the public. We will take different measures in different customer groups, strengthening comprehensive services, the high-quality services.

In the first half, personal customers, we have seen a very stable rate of personal deposit renewal. 90% of them have been renewed.

As Mr. Zhang said, there was an increase of CNY 1.04 trillion in AUM.

Now we have seen CNY 24 trillion in personal deposits. Overall, deposits, funds, insurance, precious metal have seen diversified growth.

Faced with the low interest rate, we are committed to a customer-oriented approach. So we will build our bank into a bank for retail customers.

We will serve the customers in the entire life cycle and in different scenarios. We will focus on settlement, investment and financing.

As for settlement, we will focus on business scenarios and customer-based scenarios. So we can build ecosystems, supply chains and customer clusters.

We will acquire customers from the source, for example, enterprises and university campuses. We can acquire customers from social security cards and payroll services.

Through tiered services, we can expand asset level and make sure that they are deposited in our bank. We will enhance the coverage of products like mobile banking, so we can revitalize transaction dynamics.

In terms of investment, we also try to seize the trend of wealth management to make it more inclusive, adaptable and professional, push forward diversified group. In terms of inclusiveness, we also leverage our retail customer base, continue to deepen our operation of optimized customer online service channel so that the wealth management services can benefit more customers.

In terms of adaptability, we also provided differentiated asset allocation schemes and product services for different customers. By the end of June, there is a new increase of 5.57 million of wealth management customers.

The retail investment wealth management also takes up over 30% in terms of proportion. In terms of professionalism, we also try to -- we also continue to enhance our capability.

In terms of financing centering around various needs of the customers, we continue to enrich the loan product service systems in terms of consumption, residential housing and operation. We also continue to provide the home livelihood-related services to the residential customers, improve the compensation loan provision and also provide more consumer-related credit kits, connect more scenarios and also balance the risk control needs.

By the end of June, the personal consumption loan also stands at CNY 781 billion with an increase of 14% compared with last year. Looking ahead, we will also continue to have a loose monetary policy so that the personal capital can have more leeway.

The personal capital will maintain steady growth. The savings deposits will also maintain a very steady growth.

Thank you.

Now next question from Hong Kong. The gentleman on the fifth row on the left.

I'm from Goldman Sachs. I'm Yang Shuo.

We can see that the interim -- intermediary business income is very strong for the first half. So I want to know about the fee and commission income.

What is the main strategy and also the main direction for the investment in this aspect?

So I would like to invite Ms. Han to answer the question.

Thank you for your question. Just as you mentioned, CCB has always highly emphasized on fee and commission income steady growth.

We think that its steady growth is also a key benchmark to measure the overall service capability of a commercial bank. Therefore, we also ride on the overall trend of the capital market and direct lending.

We also transformed from the loan intermediary to service intermediary. So the fee and the commission income is maintaining a leading position in the industry.

The fee income is standing at CNY 68 billion. The income structure is from 3 aspects.

We have three CNY 20 billions. The first CNY 20 billion is that we seize the opportunity of the capital market, satisficing the various financing and investment needs of the customers, enrich our product structure, optimize our allocation strategy and also deepen the service to the customers.

We also accelerated the transformation of wealth management, capital management and also the custody business. The income is also exceeding CNY 20 billion and the retail investment wealth management -- wealth scale also exceeds CNY 2.3 trillion with a new increment of CNY 30 trillion -- of CNY 300 billion.

The AUM is also over CNY 7.35 trillion. The capital custody scale is also standing at CNY 24.45 trillion.

The third-party custody customers also exceeds CNY 100 million. So all the other businesses also increased by double digit.

That is the first CNY 20 billion. The second CNY 20 billion is that we actively execute the national consumption stimulation policy about -- centering around tourism, shopping, entertainment, education and sports and leisure activities.

We are serving the 790 million customers. We continue to optimize the products and service experience.

The online transaction volume is also standing at 32.358x, with a total volume of over CNY 10 trillion. The credit card consumption transaction amount is also CNY 1.16 trillion.

So it's also contributing CNY 20 billion to our fee income. The third CNY 20 billion is that we enhance our professional capability centering around the corporate governments and the various service needs of these corporate governments.

We continue to optimize settlements, the cash management, treasury development and transaction banking. We continue to optimize the product function and the delivery experience.

So the coverage of our customers and also customer experience have a very obvious improvement. The total settlement is also realizing over CNY 118 million, and it also has a very obvious improvement with a Y-o-Y increase of 40%.

So it is also testifying -- verifying our service ability. The volume increase also exceeds over 20%.

So that it has pushed the overall fee and commission income to reach CNY 26 billion. In the meantime, I also want to brief to you that we have a very unique cost evaluation function.

This is very unique among the commercial banks, and we continue to expand the service scope and enrich the content of this service. So the overall functions and also value creation ability is also increasing.

For the second half, we will continue to satisfy the customer needs, especially the diversified wealth management needs, adhering to the service creation value principle. So we have one focus, focus on the wealth preservation and the increase of the customers, continue to enrich the wealth management, wealth -- and also investment in the custody services.

We will also respond to the national consumption policy, continue to enrich the scenario development and expand the product services and also the scope. Third, we will also seize the opportunity of industry transformation and the high-quality open up.

We will continue to optimize the corporate business scale, quality and efficiency and experience. On the whole, we will create more value to our customers.

And in that process, we will realize our own value creation for CCB so that we will continue to consolidate our fee and commission income optimization.

Thank you, Ms. Han.

Now I'd like to invite a question from Beijing. The lady on the sixth row on the left.

I'm from Financial Times. I'm [ Zhang Bingjie ].

I also noticed that State Council in this July also had the new policy on consumption expansion. So we want to know how CCB look at these opportunities brought by consumption loans?

And what kind of measures you will have? And also housing is also included in the major consumption scope supporting the residents to have better housing needs.

And we want to know more about the mortgage and consumption loan strategy for CCB.

Okay. I will invite Mr.

Tang to answer the question.

Thank you. Improved consumption, expand the domestic needs is also one of our key strategy of high-quality development.

It also created a very vast room for development for commercial banks. So we will carefully execute various requirements, continue to optimize the supply of financial products to expand consumption.

First, we will actively execute the policy of financial coordination. We will also try to stimulate the domestic needs and also coordinate the supply chain.

For the first half, CCB's subsidy is over CNY 130 billion for the personal consumption loan and credit card payment. For the second half, we will continue to improve the consumption policy execution.

Second, we will also participate in the central government and local government's major consumption financial activities, especially centered around tourism and cultural consumption. We also have some unique brands.

For example, the HomeLife and AutoLife platforms continue to expand the service consumption, commodity consumption and a new type consumption. Third, we will continue to optimize the consumption financial products and also to enrich various scenarios.

We will, based on our customer base and our digital operation capability, integrate some new consumption scenarios, new types so that we can cover wider in terms of the personal consumption credit cards business, and also the loan service system. Our loan also increased by CNY 12.3 billion for the first half, over 14% in terms of the consumption finance.

And you also mentioned about mortgage for residential housing. So given this policy, we know that residential financing is also the traditional advantages business of CCB.

We will continue to improve our model for residential development, better serve the residents' essential housing needs and the bettering housing needs. We will actively respond to these needs, so that we will have new characteristics for serving the incremental housing market.

We will also cater to the new models of the secondhand housing market, improve our mortgage capability. For the first half, with the warming up of the existing housing transaction, we have maintained very steady growth.

Second, we will continue to have integrated comprehensive financial service system for the housing mortgage we will provide whole chain financial service to clients to pursue better housing needs. Based on our HomeLife platform, we will also facilitate the clients to satisfy their consumption in terms of the home appliances, et cetera.

We will also enrich some new financial service models. For example, the village in -- the urban villages, we will also cater to the needs.

We will also have a tailored services for the housing financial services so that various needs of the customers can be satisfied. In the meantime, we can also improve -- facilitate the high-quality development of urban area.

Thank you.

Earlier prior to this meeting, we distributed a notice to collect questions of concern through investor hotline, and we received some messages on the online platform. Most of the questions were addressed in this meeting.

On top of that, some questions were related to capital and dividends. These questions have been addressed as well.

Some investors asked online, in the first half, your capital adequacy ratio remained high what are the internal and external capital replenishment measures? What are the measures going forward?

In 2026, the interim dividend has been raised to 31% in its ratio. What was the rationale behind?

Mr. Ji will take the question.

In the first half, capital adequacy ratio is 19.42%. Core Tier 1 CAR is 14.24%, which is quite good, and that is attributable to our right approach to operation risk management.

We have been committed to the balanced development of risk management volume growth and price adjustment. There are a few features.

First of all, we give priority to organic growth. We solidified capital foundation.

In the first half, net profit, RMB 171 billion, up 5.56% Y-o-Y. Excluding interim dividends, the growth was CNY 110 billion.

That means CAR has been raised by 0.44 percentage points. Secondly, we have strengthened lean management of capital.

We have adopted an approach focusing on economic added value very early on. Through 20 years we have established a capital planning system covering the whole bank in different branches and different layers.

On top of core business, we are committed to saving capital. For those businesses with low efficiency in capital use, we will regularly review them and adjust the growth of risk-weighted assets.

Thirdly, we will make orderly arrangement for issuance of capital vehicle. We will look at when this existing capital vehicles expire, and we will look at customers and investment -- investors' demand.

In the first half, we issued CNY 30 billion of capital bonds without fixed term and CNY 60 billion Tier 2 capital bonds and CNY 60 billion of TLAC bonds. So our TLAC as an indicator is very robust.

In dividend payout, we give priority to investors' returns. Since IPO, the dividends paid amounted to CNY 1.4 trillion.

In the last 3 years, every year, we proposed dividends of over RMB 100 billion. Our dividend payout ratio has been over 30%.

To better return to the investors in the interim dividends 2026, the dividend payout ratio has been revised up to 31%. And this is a final decision given consideration to the return to customers, return to shareholder and long-term development of the bank.

So we will further increase the attractiveness of our dividend, and we have reserved relatively sufficient internal assets and the proposed dividend will be implemented after being approved by the Board. Going forward, we will be committed to the principles of robustness and prudent capital management.

And with that, we will strengthen the internal capital growth. So we will issue capital vehicles in an orderly way and our capital adequacy ratio and the return -- capital return will maintain at a very optimized level so we can create better value to shareholders.

In the interest of time, we will take the very final question, and the question will come from Beijing. This gentleman, on the fifth row on the right-hand side.

From Guangfa Securities. I have a question about the use of AI.

In this year, what were the strategies and practices in AI by CCB? And what's the progress in technology security and compliance?

Mr. Lei would take the question.

Thank you. Artificial intelligence has been always a concern.

We've been implementing the decision by the party and the government. Artificial intelligence is a strategic option for high-quality development.

We will enhance the deep integration of finance, operation management and artificial intelligence. First of all, we enhance our fundamental capabilities.

We have a 3-year plan called AI Plus. This will provide an action plan for rapidly growing technologies and also stipulate time lines for our annual schedule.

We have agent platforms. We support business units to develop agents.

We will try to include each and every employee in the development of AI technologies. We will explore business needs and offer one-stop service to make sure that they implement it.

We will create an ecosystem where everyone can contribute, regulations, product knowledge, case studies and experience can be all included in an enterprise-level knowledge base. Compliance and security will be involved in the whole process of AI development and application.

So we will set up an evaluation system for model data and applications. We will include the new risks coming from AI in our regular monitoring process so that the development and applications of AI are controllable and safe.

Secondly, we will focus on our real business. We have launched over 600 AI-powered applications based on our scenario.

So we are working in collaboration with AI and with human beings. Number one, one of these case studies has to do with customer operation.

[ Bond ] is the smart assessment assistant to customer services. So we can use this tool to cover the scope work of the customer managers.

Monthly active users in the first half were over 40,000 and the interactions were over 90 million. [ Bond ] can help our customer managers promote their operational performance.

With this AI tool, the new assets under management increased by 57%. In inclusive finance, we can collect customers' case studies, transactions and transaction data in 20 minutes.

So we don't have to make the customers come to the branches and outlets. And through AI analysis, customer managers can generate reports and the process takes only 2 to 3 hours instead of 2 to 3 days prior.

And we have strengthened our capability in verifying the authenticity of customer information. We will take a deeper look at customers' needs so we can promote services in a targeted way, covering over 6 million inclusive finance customers.

In risk management, we can use AI in customer risk mitigation and identification so we can strengthen its use in the whole process of granting a loan and approving a loan, and we have developed agents for looking at strategic and structural changes. And with 3 months, we have covered over 90,000 records with AI so we can identify potential risks early on and report them.

In operation services, we have improved the AI assistance for bank employees working in outlets. In their business, the system will give them heads up on the problems of concern.

Of course, they can ask questions and launch a survey. For example, they can check corporate accounts, and they can work remotely.

And in this process, we have set up a new model with human beings and AI working together. In research development, AI has become involved in the whole process from coding to safety to security approval and risk risk pre-warning.

It's involved in every step. And the contribution from AI coding, the contribution rate increased by 50% and the adoption rate of AI-generated cases is close to 70%.

And we will make sure that this digital system can understand our language and can read complex documents, so we can get data real time. Different roles and different positions will be included in the AI tool.

So the use of data is compliant, and they can also meet the demand of employees in their own use. Going forward, we will strictly implement the requirements of the regulators, and we will set up the regulations for development of artificial intelligence.

We will seize the opportunity of AI development given that AI must be controllable and safe. We will make sure that it contributes to high-quality development of the bank and also the building of a strong financial power.

Thank you, Mr. Lei.

Dear analysts, dear friends, in the interest of time, we will wrap up the Q&A session here. The management has responded to the questions in a frank and candid way.

We hope that their responses can help better understand our business development and business results and the development trends. Here, we will wrap up the whole press conference.

If you have further questions, please get in touch with the Board office and the PR department of the group. So now this press conference will be wrapped up, and I wish you good health and every success.

Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]