China's A-share listed banks have entered the peak season for 2026 interim disclosures, with 10 banks reporting through formal half-year results or earnings previews by Aug. 25. Nine recorded year-on-year growth in both revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders. The commercial banking sector's net interest margin, or NIM (the spread between lending income and funding costs), rose 1 basis point quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter to 1.41%, marking its first sequential improvement since Q4 2021 after more than four years of decline. City commercial banks led the initial results, with Bank of Ningbo reporting revenue of 41.45 billion yuan and attributable net profit of 16.56 billion yuan, up 11.54% and 12.12%, respectively. The improvement was supported mainly by lower liability costs and stronger wealth-management fees, although asset yields, retail credit demand and small-bank asset quality remain under pressure. Industry net profit reached 1.2 trillion yuan in the first half, down 0.6% year-on-year, but Q2 profit grew about 3% and the decline narrowed 3.1 percentage points from Q1. Analysts describe the margin trend as bottoming out with volatility rather than a confirmed reversal.