NW China opens bank to support small local businesses

The Bank of China Fullerton Community Bank opened a county-level bank in the city of Baiyin, Gansu province, on July 28 to provide financial services for small-to-mid-sized enterprises, as the province's first Sino-foreign joint venture bank of its kind.

At the opening ceremony, the bank also announced that it is donating 20,000 yuan ($3,220) to schools in the village of Pingchuan, near Baiyin.

Bank of China Fullerton is a joint venture of the Bank of China joint and Fullerton Financial Holdings, which is itself a subsidiary of the Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holding Co, which provides financial support for micro-, working-class and agricultural businesses at the county level.

The parent bank has 57 county banks and 33 branches across China.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw