OREANDA-NEWS. July 30, 2012. As part of ABC's program of lead sponsorship in rural banks, Xiamen Tongan Rural Bank and Zhejiang Yongkang Rural Bank opened for business with an opening ceremony. Lead by Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC), the registered capital of the two rural banks are RMB100 million and RMB210 million respectively, with ABC as a 51% stakeholder in each. To date, ABC has been lead sponsor in six rural banks, reported the press-centre of ABC.

In recent years, ABC has been actively exploring new channels and new ways to serve rural development, and establishing rural banks as one of its major innovative campaigns. ABC has successively set up four rural banks in Hubei, Inner Mongolia, Anhui and Shaanxi. With ABC's guidance, these four rural banks have developed successful business plans based on local economic conditions and within their strategic market position of serving agriculture and SMEs.

They stick to the concept of "localization of services, standardization of operation and normalization of management", and actively serve rural customers, all with a positive impact on the local rural economy. By the end of March 2012, the loan balance of the four rural banks amounted to RMB349 million, primarily extended to small and micro-sized customers and farmers, with 0% non-performing loans. The goal of "controllable risks, considerable profits and sustainable development" has been realized. More importantly, they have accumulated valuable experience in broadening channels to support rural development as well as exploring new models of serving agriculture, countryside and farmers.

The decision to establish ABC rural banks in Tongan, Xiamnen and Yongkang, Zhejiang Province is in line with regulatory requirement of coordinating the development of rural banks. On the other hand, the decision gives full consideration to the conditions of regional economy, agro-economy, and private economy in both regions, as well as the financial needs of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises, individual business customers, and rural residents. ABC indicates that it will earnestly perform its duties as the sponsor bank and continue to pay close attention to the development of the two rural banks. It will also actively provide all-round support to them in various aspects, such as corporate governance, institutional construction, product innovation, risk management and system building. ABC is committed to the goal of building them into exemplary and model rural banks.

As the lead sponsor, ABC will actively guide the two rural banks to adhere to the business concept of serving local needs within the market position of "serving agricultural and SMEs". The two rural banks will both leverage themselves with and learn from ABC's advantages in market orientation, flexible systems, and efficient decision-making, and thus, to innovate their own products, and optimize their procedures, so as to provide quality and efficient services to modern rural customers and small and micro-sized customers. Confirming their own dedication to becoming exemplary banks, the two ABC rural banks declared that they would create first-class brands through hard and innovative work.