A group of rural commercial banks situated in the Yangtze River Delta region have unveiled plans to increased interbank cooperation.
The group of 21 banks released the “Yangtze River Delta Rural Village Financial Institution Cooperative Declaration” (长三角农村金融机构合作宣言) on 2 August at the 2nd Yangtze River Delta Rural Village Financial Conference (第二届长三角农村金融座谈会) held in Shanghai.
The 21 banks included:
- Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank (上海农商银行)
- Anhui Rural Credit Union (安徽省农村信用社联合社)
- Jiangsu Rural Credit Union (江苏省农村信用社联合社)
- Zhejiang Rural Credit Union (浙江省农村信用社联合社)
- Zijin Rural Commercial Bank (紫金农商银行)
- Jiangnan Rural Commercial Bank (江南农商银行)
- Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank (张家港农商银行)
- Changshu Rural Commercial Bank (常熟农商银行)
- Kunshan Rural Commercial Bank (昆山农商银行)
- Hangzhou United Bank (杭州联合银行)
- Yuhang Rural Commercial Bank (余杭农商银行)
- Bank of Zhangzhou (鄞州银行)
- Jiashan Rural Commercial Bank (嘉善农商银行)
- Hefei Keji Rural Commercial Bank.
The goal of the Declaration is to further the “joint establishment of cooperative mechanisms, the joint founding of cooperative platforms and the joint sharing of information resources” amongst member banks in the region.
Participating organisations jointly established the “Yangtze River Delta Rural Village Financial Institution Corporate Financial Operations Specialist Committee” (长三角农村金融机构公司金融业务专业委员会), the “Financial Markets Operations Specialist Committee” (金融市场业务专业委员会) and the “Trade Finance Operations Specialist Committee” (贸易金融业务专业委员会) as non-legal person organisations independent of member entities, with the goal of “creating integrated, close cooperative relations by means of information sharing and joint reaping of rewards.”
According to the “Yangtze River Delta Regional Integration Development Three Year Action Plan (2018 – 2020) Mission Breakdown” (长三角地区一体化发展三年行动计划（2018-2020年）任务分解表) released by the Yangtze Regional Cooperative Office, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank is entrusted with the mission of “establishing the Yangtze Rural Village Financial Conference as a normalised work mechanism, improving the financial inclusion system, and servicing the rural village revival strategy.”
As of the end of June 2019 Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank had commenced foreign currency lending operations with eight other lenders including Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank, Kunshan Rural Commercial Bank, Changshu Rural Commercial Bank, Wuxi Rural Commercial Bank, Jiangnan Rural Commercial Bank, Hangzhou United Bank and Bank of Zhangzhou
Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank has also engaged in foreign exchange swap transactions and domestic forfaiting secondary market operations with Jiangnan Rural Commercial Bank and Hangzhou United Bank, and entrusted payments operations with Hefei Keji Bank and Zijin Rural Commercial Bank.
