New Bank Aims to Shore Up Chinese Province’s Corruption-Plagued Rural Lenders

A planned new rural commercial bank in Henan province will serve as the keystone in its top-down effort to overhaul troubled rural credit institutions in the region, where rampant corruption has gutted the quality of their assets.

With the upcoming launch of the lender, Henan Rural Commercial United Bank Co. Ltd., the provincial government aims to improve corporate governance of more than 130 rural credit institutions, whose low overall asset quality has threatened the stability of this corner of the local financial system.