He said foreign banks are operating 13 of the 240 county banks in China.

A report published by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) in January said although China had seen rapid reform in its financial sector in recent decades, reform in the rural financial sector had lagged, exacerbating the economic gap between rural and urban regions.

The ADB book said demand for rural finance in China had largely been met by local branches of large urban banks at high costs with high risk.

China's banking regulatory authority, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, has said the government would establish 1,027 county banks in 35 provinces and regions across the country to boost rural financing.

The Commonwealth Bank is Australia's largest bank by market capitalization. It entered the China market about 20 years ago and opened its first branch in Shanghai in March last year to handle the bank's north Asia business.