Nation's largest group of village, township banks to offer support in more rural areas

BOC Fullerton Community Bank Co Ltd officially opened for business on Tuesday. It will further increase investment in village and township banks in addition to previous investments in those banks, especially in the central and western regions of China, amid efforts to develop inclusive finance and support the real economy.

As China's largest group of village and township banks, it aims to fill the vacancies in those counties where there are no such banks and help those banks that initiated the launch of some village banks, which later failed to perform well, find ways to exit their investments, said Wang Xiaoming, chairman of BOC Fullerton Community Bank.

"Last year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission gave us the green light to set up another 10 village and township banks. Six of them are already in the pipeline. We expect to launch new banks in the central and western regions in the first half of next year, and we don't rule out the possibility to acquire more village and township banks at the right time," Wang said.

From March 2011 to the end of May this year, Bank of China Ltd and Fullerton Financial Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd, established and acquired 125 village and township banks and named them all BOC Fullerton Community Bank. Two-thirds of the banks are located in the central and western regions of the country.

BOC Fullerton Community Bank, a bank group that is committed to investing in village and township banks, received regulatory approval in June to commence operations.

With registered capital of 1 billion yuan ($144.24 million), it is registered in the Xiong'an New Area in Hebei province. Bank of China holds 90 percent of its shares, and Fullerton Financial Holdings holds the remaining 10 percent.

Compared with typical village and township banks, BOC Fullerton Community Bank has the investment function, which means it has a larger amount of capital and is capable of devoting more resources of information technology and talented people to village and township banks.

Therefore, it will provide more scientific and efficient centralized management of the front office and middle office of the village and township banks it has invested in. Its establishment is of great significance to village bank investing activities and the operations and management of such banks, Wang said.

"Our most important task for now is to let BOC Fullerton Community Bank take over the shares held by Bank of China and Fullerton Financial Holdings in 125 banks. When the task is completed, it is estimated that our registered capital will exceed 10 billion yuan. After that, we will push ahead with shareholding diversification," he said.

When choosing new investors, the bank will welcome companies that are specialized in financial technologies and leading companies in the agriculture supply chain since its goal is to build a digitized, technology-based rural bank.

Financial risk in small and medium-sized rural banks in China is generally controllable and the overall level of their liquidity remains stable, said Hong Xiaoping, deputy director of the rural small and medium-sized banking institution supervision department of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

In China's bank lending to agro-related businesses, small businesses and private companies, small and medium-sized rural commercial banks contributed nearly 30 percent. By the end of May, the outstanding balance of their agro-related loans reached 11.6 trillion yuan, and the outstanding balance of their small business loans was 10.8 trillion yuan, Hong said on July 16.

Rural financial institutions must stick to their positioning of serving small businesses, individual businesses and agro-related clients. They should also take strong measures to prevent moral hazards, including the implementation of anti-fraud controls, Wang said.

BOC Fullerton Community Bank hired compliance officers at each of its 125 banks to lead compliance and anti-money laundering efforts. It has also built an independent audit team of 60 to 70 people to identify problems at these banks in a timely manner.