139,800 complaints, 2.62% dissatisfaction rate: The "high returns" cost of CITIC Bank credit cards

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While total assets have surpassed the trillion-yuan mark, Citic Bank’s retail business has hit a “crash-and-boom” situation. The 2025 annual report shows that the bank’s retail banking pre-tax profit fell by more than 40%, even as its credit card business contributed nearly 50 billion yuan in revenue, yet accounted for more than 50% of complaints across the whole bank. On one side are the assets with the highest yield; on the other side are the area hit hardest by complaints. Citic Bank’s credit card business is standing right on the edge of a storm.

Recently, Citic Bank disclosed its 2025 annual report. During the reporting period, the bank achieved operating income of 70.62B yuan, down 0.55% year over year; it achieved attributable net profit of 101.3k yuan, up 2.98% year over year. By the end of the reporting period, Citic Bank’s total assets had surpassed the trillion-yuan mark, reaching 1.013 trillion yuan, up 6.28% from the end of the previous year; total loans and advances were 58.6k yuan, up 2.48% from the end of the previous year; total customer deposits were 60.5k yuan, up 4.69% from the end of the previous year.

In terms of asset quality, as of the end of the reporting period, Citic Bank’s balance of non-performing loans was 67.22B yuan, an increase of 0.7316 billion yuan from the end of the previous year, up 1.10%; the non-performing loan ratio was 1.15%, down 0.01 percentage points from the end of the previous year; and the provision coverage ratio was 203.61%, down 5.82 percentage points from the end of the previous year.

The annual report discloses that Citic Bank’s main businesses are divided into three segments: corporate banking, retail banking, and financial markets. New Economic IPO noticed that during the reporting period, Citic Bank’s retail banking was the only segment in which both operating income and pre-tax profit declined. According to the annual report, in 2025 Citic Bank’s retail banking achieved operating income of 79.37B yuan, down 7.37% year over year, and pre-tax profit of 5.3B yuan, down 42.55% year over year. Note: Retail banking includes: savings deposits, personal loans, loans to micro and small enterprises, credit card business, wealth management, payment and settlement, value-added services, etc.

According to the annual report, in 2025 Citic Bank’s retail banking had average total assets of 46.8 billion yuan [(assets at the end of 2024 + assets at the end of 2025) ÷ 2]. Based on this, the retail banking return on total assets (ROA) is 0.23%. In the same period, the return on total assets for corporate banking and the ROA for financial markets are, respectively, 1.68% and 0.75%. Evidently, Citic Bank’s retail banking has weaker earning capability.

Although retail banking earns less, the average yield on personal loan business is higher. According to the annual report disclosure, in 2025 Citic Bank’s average yield on corporate loans was 3.54%, compared with 4.12% in the prior year; the average yield on personal loans was 4.15%, compared with 4.87% in the prior year; the average yield on discounted loans was 1.09%, compared with 1.39% in the prior year. It is not hard to see that although the average yields on Citic Bank’s loan business are all declining, the average yield on personal loans remains the highest.

According to the annual report, by the end of 2025, Citic Bank’s balance of personal loans and advances was 2,302.803 billion yuan. Of this, residential mortgage loans were 1,087.671 billion yuan (47.23%); operating loans were 46.8k yuan (21.13%); credit cards were 486.53B yuan (20.07%); consumer loans were 462.12B yuan (11.57%).

New Economic IPO noticed that although credit card loans account for only 8.77% of Citic Bank’s total loan amount (including the interest portion), and only 20.07% of Citic Bank’s total personal loan amount, complaints brought about by the credit card business exceed half of Citic Bank’s complaints. According to the annual report, in 2025 Citic Bank received a total of 259,290 complaints through regulatory channel referrals, the 95558 channel, credit card center channels, and other channels (excluding duplicate complaints, as well as complaints related to account control accepted by the bank’s internal channels, credit reports, billing standards, debt negotiations, etc.).

Among them, 12,792 complaints were accepted that were referred from regulatory channels, down 33.77% year over year. The top three complaint categories by share were: credit card business, debit card account opening and related usage business, and personal loan business, with shares of 53.92%, 15.09%, and 12.01%, respectively. Based on this, in 2025 Citic Bank’s credit card business received a total of 139.8k complaints.

New Economic IPO noticed that on March 20, a netizen on Black Cat Complaints [Download Black Cat Complaints client] reported that when upgrading their Citic Bank credit card to a platinum card via a phone invitation, the customer service did not clearly inform them that a mandatory annual fee would be charged in the first year, and failed to fulfill the duty to give clear reminders and notices. In both 2024 and 2025, the annual platinum card fee was deducted for two consecutive years. The bank did not notify in advance via SMS/APP when it deducted the fees; only when checking the statements recently did they find it. The person has never used any benefits of the platinum card. The bank did not inform them or provide any services. They strongly demand a refund of the annual fees charged in 2024 and 2025, to close platinum card charging, and to restore the original card’s fee-waiver annual fee policy.

The above experience of the netizen is not an isolated case. From March 9 to March 11, another netizen reported that they have had a Citic Bank platinum credit card for more than 15 years; they were charged 2,000 yuan in annual fees every year, totaling 30k yuan charged. Over these 15 years, they neither proactively used any benefits of the card nor received any notice from the bank about using the benefits. In prior rounds of communication with the bank, customer service made promises that the annual fee for 1 year could be refunded, that the annual fee for 3 years could be refunded, and that the annual fee for 5 years could be refunded. The person requests a one-time refund of the unreasonable annual fees for 15 years and does not accept any form of partial refunds, benefit compensation, or other alternative plans.

On March 18, the netizen confirmed that the complaint was completed and gave a 5-star rating. This also means that Citic Bank has fully refunded the fees.

Besides annual fee issues, multiple netizens also reported that Citic Bank’s credit card center “mysteriously” deducted value-added service fees.

For example, on March 12, a netizen reported that on February 8, 2026 at 23:59, Citic Bank’s credit card deducted 199 yuan, showing the purchase of the value-added service “安心还A,” with no reminders or authorization, and it specifically chose that late-night time point to deduct the payment. On February 11, another netizen reported that they hold 2 Citic Bank credit cards and found inexplicable value-added service fees, including: 信服卡友, 惠享兑, 借无忧C, 还款宝, 盗无忧, 安心还A, 小信咨询, 健康咨询, and other service fees. From 2021 to now, a total of 2,826 yuan has been deducted. Please have Citic Bank’s credit card refund it.

New Economic IPO noticed that the value-added services disclosed on Citic Bank’s credit card website include dozens of products such as 我爱我家, 小金领, 盗无忧, 驾乘宝, 安心还, 悦悦还, 随心用, 短信宝, 信服卡友, and others (including membership products and insurance products).

Apart from complaints related to annual fees and value-added service fees, Black Cat Complaints also includes many other complaints about Citic Bank credit cards, such as “violent debt collection,” high interest rates/late fees, etc.

According to the annual report disclosure, during the reporting period Citic Bank’s credit card transaction volume was 2.18 trillion yuan, and credit card business revenue was 266.49B yuan. By the end of 2025, cumulative credit cards issued totaled 129 million cards, up 4.60% from the end of the previous year; non-performing credit card loans were 139.8k yuan, down 30k yuan from the end of the previous year; the non-performing ratio was 2.62%, up 0.12 percentage points from the end of the previous year.

Credit card business is not only an important profit source for Citic Bank’s retail segment, but also a concentrated area for customer complaints. In the game between high returns and high risks, how to balance business growth with customer experience, and properly handle controversial issues such as annual fees and value-added services, has become an unavoidable exam for Citic Bank. If it cannot optimize services in a timely manner and improve transparency, this “cash cow” credit card business may end up backfiring on the overall reputation of its retail banking.

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