Competition among Shaanxi Local Banks during the “Two Sessions (NPC and CPPCC)”

At the beginning of New Year, local banks in Shaanxi started “catching up with and surpass” each other. During “Two Sessions”, the governmental report made by Governor Hu Heping gave a clear direction, by which local banks would work out their blueprints for “long-term plans, overall arrangements and leap-forward  development” in 2017.

Long-term plan

Construction of financial center in Xi’an should be accelerated

In 2010, the State Council issued Development Plan for Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone, stating the strategic objective of “building Xi’an as the critical regional financial center of the state”. In 2013, Development Plan of Regional Financial Center in Xi’an (2013-2020) was issued, stating to build Xi’an as a “financial center with energy, technology and culture characteristics serving regional cooperation and development”.

The year of 2017 is the beginning for second step of the Development Plan of Regional Financial Center in Xi’an (2013-2020), so it shall determine the position of a domestic strong financial city and regional financial center in 2017-2020. By 2020, increased amount of financial industry in Xi’an is estimated to exceed 90 billion Yuan, accounting more than 90% of the GDP. It is believed that policy support for financial industry will be enhanced and financial & tax policies for financial industry will be perfected further this year to guarantee completing development in the second step.

Overall arrangements

Chang’an Bank and Qinnong Bank will be developed in scale all over the province

Governmental report of Shaanxi this year gives clear layout requirements for Chang’an Bank and Qinnong Bank in local area: to support large asset scale of the Chang’an Bank and provincial development of Qinnong Bank.

Established in 2009, Chang’an Bank occupied over 180 billion Yuan for assets, 117 billion Yuan for deposits, 76.5 billion Yuan for loan, and 1.2 billion Yuan for net profit by December 2016. With such great performance and as a provincial urban commercial bank, “being the largest and strongest modern commercial bank in Shaanxi” of the Chang’an Bank can be interpreted as the expectation and position on the level of provincial government.

Qinnong Bank is a stock-holding rural commercial bank via capital increase, stock expansion, and equity optimization on the basis of merge and combination of 6 urban and rural cooperative credit societies in Xi’an. It mainly covers major urban areas in Xi’an. By referring development track of rural commercial banks in other provinces, layout of the Qinnong Bank is to achieve layout all over the province. Under the background of increasing difficulty for weak fields such as small and micro and “three rural issues” in Shaanxi, provincial layout of Qinnong Bank continues the market positioning of supporting rural issues and small enterprises of rural cooperative credit societies and provides capitals and strength for its development.

Leap-forward development

Bank of Xi’an is expected to be the first local listed bank in Shaanxi

IPO hearsay on Bank of Xi’an has lasted for a long time. But at present, it takes prospectus pre-announcement in website of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to be the first bank giving IPO prospectus in 2017. The Bank of Xi’an is expected to be the first local listed bank in Shaanxi. The consequential benefits of being a listed bank will be helpful for rapid development and management promotion of the bank to be leading enterprise of local financing industry.

Report this year also mentions developing non-bank financial institution positively, innovating and perfecting financial monitoring system, promoting interconnection and share of credit information, controlling financial risks for the industry and major fields strictly, and improving service capacity of the finance to the real economy.