Glonghui, April 22 | CICC released a report. In the first quarter, the revenue of listed banks in the mainland is expected to drop 4% year-on-year, and net profit will increase by 1% year-on-year. The profit growth rate will continue to weaken compared to last year. According to the bank, the pace of expansion of bank assets is slowing down, and some banks may be shrinking. However, interest spreads continued to narrow, and wealth management revenue was weak, hampering revenue performance. Considering that loan repricing is still occurring, interest rates on newly issued loans and bonds are declining, and deposit regularization is still present, it is expected that the net interest spreads of listed banks will narrow by 6 basis points quarterly in the first quarter, corresponding to an annual decline of 25 basis points, dragging down net interest income by 5% year-on-year. Furthermore, net handling fee revenue is expected to drop 10% year-on-year due to the reduction in fund and insurance consignment rates and residents' risk appetite for financial asset allocation remains low. Other non-interest income benefits from declining market interest rates and is expected to grow 11% year-on-year. CICC expects that listed banks have a provision coverage rate of 242% at the end of last year, which is still some distance from the minimum regulatory requirement of 120% to 150%. There is room to support net profit, which is also one of the basic factors supporting dividend stability. According to CICC, although the profit growth rate of listed banks is expected to weaken, the stability of dividends and the ability to operate sustainably have provided some support for stock price performance. It is recommended to focus on Changshu Bank and Bank of Ningbo, which have better performance expectations for the first quarter; major state-owned banks still have allocation value. Currently, the dividend rate for A-shares is 5% to 5.5% and the dividend rate for H shares is 7.3% to 9%; the dividend rates of some leading regional banks in high-quality regions are also attractive, including Bank of Chengdu, Bank of Jiangsu, Bank of Nanjing, etc.; Nongyu Commercial Bank and Minsheng Bank, which have stabilized their performance from the bottom.