Xin Lang Cai Jing·2026-02-18 05:56Core Insights - The mobile banking user base in China is expected to peak in 2025, shifting the industry focus from acquiring new users to enhancing existing user engagement [1] - Financial institutions must achieve extreme efficiency and precision in their ecosystems to survive in this new environment [1] Industry Overview - According to an iResearch report, joint-stock banks are adopting differentiated survival strategies, leading to significant head effects [1] - China Merchants Bank leads joint-stock banks with 71.854 million monthly active users (MAU), surpassing some state-owned banks due to its focus on wealth management and intelligent interaction [1] - Ping An Bank and CITIC Bank form the second tier, maintaining MAUs between 20 million and 30 million, with Ping An Bank leveraging AI to reconstruct service chains and CITIC Bank integrating consumer ecosystems [1] Competitive Landscape - Third-tier institutions, such as Minsheng Bank and Everbright Bank, have seen their MAUs drop to between 10 million and 20 million, indicating a tightening survival space [1] - Local banks are experiencing growth by focusing on their local markets, with city commercial banks like Jiangsu Bank and Beijing Bank maintaining MAUs above 3 million [1] - Among rural commercial banks and rural credit cooperatives, Fujian Rural Credit has surpassed 4.5 million MAUs, capturing traffic in county and rural areas [1] Challenges for Private Banks - The situation for private banks is dire, with the top 50 list for 2025 nearly extinct due to a lack of physical branches, local living ecosystems, and high customer acquisition costs, leading to a loss of competitiveness in the mobile banking sector [1] - In the era of stock competition, ecological and regional capabilities are becoming the key to success [1]