Chairman’s salary increased by 680k yuan, while employees’ salaries decreased by 3,654 yuan. Why did the leadership and staff of Wuxi Bank experience opposite changes in their compensation?

Ask AI · Wuxi Bank executives’ salaries increased by nearly 70%, what considerations are behind the compensation strategy amid slight performance growth?

Our report (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Lu Mengxue Beijing report

68,020 yuan, 67,040 yuan, 32,450 yuan — these are the salary increases for the Chairman and two Presidents of Wuxi Bank in 2025; while 3,654 yuan is the amount by which the bank’s average employee salary decreased this year. Against the backdrop of slight performance growth and pressure on net interest margins, Wuxi Bank (600908.SH) internal pay differentiation draws attention.

As the first rural commercial bank listed on the main board of A-shares nationwide, Wuxi Bank’s net interest margin pressure in 2025 remains unchanged. Financial reports show that last year, the bank’s net interest margin was 1.35%, with a larger year-over-year decline. In this context, although the bank’s intermediary business income and other revenues declined slightly, it achieved a slight year-over-year increase in revenue and net profit through strong growth in investment income.

Under the pressure of sluggish performance growth, it is understandable to cut employee costs. But the reporter noticed that in 2025, Wuxi Bank’s average employee salary decreased by 3,654 yuan compared to 2024, while the salaries of the Chairman and five Presidents increased sharply, with raises ranging from nearly 180k yuan to over 680k yuan.

Management salaries increased by nearly 70%, employee salaries have been declining for years

Financial reports show that Wuxi Bank achieved operating income of 680.2k yuan in 2025, up 1.98% year-over-year; net profit was 670.4k yuan, up 2.53%, with further slowing growth.

Although both revenue and net profit increased slightly year-over-year, the downward trend in average employee salary did not change. The reporter calculated the total employee compensation for the year by adding the difference between “employee compensation payable” at the beginning and end of the period and “cash paid to employees,” and estimated total employee numbers using the average of employee counts at the beginning and end of the period. The results showed that from 2023 to 2025, the average employee salary was 470.9k yuan, 458.9k yuan, and 455.3k yuan respectively. In 2025, it decreased by 3,654 yuan compared to 2024.

Performance growth faces pressure, and the salary level of bank employees is inevitably affected, which is normal. But the reporter found that the salaries of the Chairman and five Presidents of Wuxi Bank increased significantly under this background, with some increases exceeding 90%.

Among them, the Chairman Tao Chang’s pre-tax total salary in 2025 was 1.5902 million yuan, an increase of 680.2k yuan from 2024, a 74.75% rise; of the five Presidents, the highest-paid was President and Chief Compliance Officer Chen Hongmei, with 1.9237 million yuan, an increase of 324.5k yuan from 2024; Vice President Shi Wei saw the largest increase, with a year-over-year rise of 670.4k yuan, up 94.82%.

The other three vice presidents (He Jianjun, Cao Yanqing, Xu Yanbing) had pre-tax salaries in 2025 that increased by 179.5k yuan, 180.8k yuan, and 268.7k yuan respectively from 2024, with growth rates exceeding 10%.

Regarding why the salaries of the Chairman and Presidents show a clear contrast with the trend of employee salaries, a reporter from Huaxia Times interviewed Wuxi Bank on April 2, but received no response by the time of publication.

However, although the average employee salary has been declining for nearly three years, the reporter’s comparison of recent years shows that Wuxi Bank’s average employee salary remains in the upper middle range among 42 listed A-share banks.

Differences in tenure “amplify” the salary increases of some senior executives

In fact, Tao Chang’s salary increase needs to be understood in conjunction with his change in position.

Public information shows that Tao Chang previously worked at Wuxi Bank but resigned as President in November 2023, and from March 2024, served as Chairman of Jiangsu Jingjiang Rural Commercial Bank until December 2024, when he began serving as Chairman of Wuxi Bank. Therefore, the 2024 annual report discloses his salary of 910k yuan, which corresponds to less than a year’s compensation. In the 2023 reporting period, Tao Chang (then serving as President) received a pre-tax total compensation of 1.6807 million yuan from Wuxi Bank (about 11 months’ salary), which was already higher than the 2025 figure of 1.5902 million yuan.

The situation for the current President Chen Hongmei and Vice President Shi Wei is similar. Public data shows that Chen Hongmei started her tenure as President in February 2024, and her 2024 salary of 1.5992 million yuan does not reflect a full year as President. Shi Wei was only approved as Vice President in October 2024, and her 2024 salary of 700,700 yuan only covers part of the period.

However, the tenure of Vice Presidents He Jianjun, Cao Yanqing, and Xu Yanbing all began before 2023. Looking at their salary levels over the past three years, the upward trend in leadership compensation remains unchanged.

Dong Ximiao, Chief Researcher at Zhaolian, told Huaxia Times that as a financial enterprise, bank compensation is closely linked to operational performance, and changes vary by bank and individual. He emphasized that one should objectively view the structural changes behind bank employee compensation adjustments. He further explained that in recent years, the proportion of basic wages has declined, performance-based pay has increased, and disparities among departments and branches are widening. Additionally, with the improvement of compensation systems, banks generally increase deferred payments for senior management and key positions, which is one reason some employees’ current income has decreased.

It should be noted that the “employee compensation” disclosed by banks is a broad concept and does not reflect employees’ actual take-home pay. For example, Wuxi Bank’s disclosed employee compensation includes: wages, bonuses, allowances and subsidies; employee benefits; social insurance and housing fund; union funds and employee education expenses, etc.

Net interest margin decline widens, investment income supports performance

Wuxi Bank’s headquarters is located in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. It was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2016, becoming the first rural commercial bank listed on the main board of A-shares nationwide. As of the end of 2025, the bank’s total assets reached 324.5k yuan, an increase of 9.28%.

Net interest margin (NIM) is a core indicator of a bank’s profitability. Over the past few years, the banking industry has faced pressure from narrowing interest margins, but in recent years, the decline has slowed. As of the end of Q4 2025, the net interest margin of commercial banks was 1.42%, down 0.1 percentage points from the same period last year.

However, Wuxi Bank’s situation shows an expanded decline. The annual report indicates that at the end of last year, the bank’s net interest margin was 1.35%, down 0.16 percentage points from 2024, with a larger decrease than the 0.13 percentage points decline in 2024.

For Wuxi Bank, which mainly earns from interest spreads on deposits and loans, this indicator significantly impacts its performance growth.

Looking at the revenue structure, in 2025, both interest income and interest expenses declined, with net interest income increasing only slightly by 0.21% year-over-year. Amid a slight decline in intermediary business income such as fees and commissions, investment income reached 180k yuan, up 25.51% year-over-year, becoming an important support for performance growth. Wuxi Bank stated in its financial report that this was “the result of adjusting the investment allocation ratio of its own funds to effectively increase asset yields.”

Despite achieving double growth in revenue and net profit, Wuxi Bank’s provisioning coverage ratio has declined significantly in recent years. At the end of 2025, the ratio was still high at 414.91%, but down 42.69 percentage points from the end of 2024, and 107.66 percentage points lower than at the end of 2023.

An industry insider told Huaxia Times that under different market environments, banks often adjust provisioning to stabilize profit growth. When revenue and net profit growth are somewhat sluggish, many banks choose to release provisions “to make up for the shortfall,” smoothing profit fluctuations and easing performance growth pressure.

Editor: Feng Yingzi Chief Editor: Zhang Zhiwei