The opening ceremony of Ruzhou Rural Commercial Bank was held on Oct 30, zyjjw.cn reported on Nov 6.

The opening of Ruzhou Rural Commercial Bank is a historic event for Ruzhou's finance development. The rural finance cooperative, with a history of over 60 years in Ruzhou, was ended thereafter.

The efforts to transform the Ruzhou Rural Credit Cooperative into a rural commercial bank began in September 2004.

Ruzhou was granted Central Bank bills totaling more than 300 million yuan ($49.23 million) in September 2004 to assist with banking reform and development. In order to organize a rural commercial bank, Ruzhou Rural Credit Cooperative's supervision indicators had to adhere to standards as a whole on June 2012.

The application for rural commercial bank was submitted to the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) at the end of 2012, following approvals of the Pingdingshan and Henan provincial banking regulatory commissions.

Ruzhou's application was approved by the CBRC on April 10, 2013. The official approval for starting business was released by the CBRC on Oct 14.

Ruzhou Rural Commercial Bank is a modern joint-equity bank with a registered capital totaling 396 million yuan. It tops other Ruzhou local banks in terms of employees, business outlets and assets. Its total assets were 8.41 billion yuan by the end of September.

As a rural-oriented bank, Ruzhou Rural Commercial Bank provides services for agriculture, villages, farmers; micro, small and medium-sized enterprises; and rural and urban residents. It strives to play an active part in constructing a new socialist rural area.

Edited by Michael Thai