Lanzhou Bank to acquire Lintao County Jincheng Village Bank, absorb RMB 3.434 billion in assets, completing

Lanzhou Bank plans to acquire Lintao Jincheng Village Bank, and has scheduled an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on August 28, 2026, to deliberate related proposals. Under the proposal, Lanzhou Bank will use cash to purchase all shares held by other shareholders. After the transaction, Lintao County Jincheng Village Bank will be dissolved and its legal entity status cancelled, with all assets, liabilities, business, and four outlets taken over by Lanzhou Bank. As of the end of 2025, the village bank recorded total assets of RMB 3.434 billion, total liabilities of RMB 3.264 billion, and owner's equity of RMB 170 million. It operated four outlets with 61 employees. Lanzhou Bank stated the acquisition does not constitute a major asset restructuring and has a limited impact on its operations.

Lanzhou Bank's consolidation of its village bank subsidiaries has accelerated notably since 2024, with the Lintao case completing the full sequence. In December 2024, the Gansu regulatory bureau approved the acquisition of Xigu Jincheng Village Bank, leading to the establishment of three sub-branches. During the same period, the Qingyang regulatory bureau approved the acquisition of Heshui County Jincheng Village Bank. In March 2025, the Longnan regulatory bureau approved the acquisition of Wudu Jinqiao Village Bank, with eight sub-branches being set up at once. In December 2025, the Qingyang bureau approved the acquisition of Qingcheng County Jincheng Village Bank, establishing four sub-branches. Lintao Village Bank is the last entity in this consolidation path. Although Lanzhou Bank has a branch in Dingxi City, which administers Lintao County, it has not yet deployed any outlets in Lintao County. By converting the acquired village bank into sub-branches, Lanzhou Bank achieves outlet penetration. After the deal is completed, the village bank's four outlets and 61 employees will be fully integrated into Lanzhou Bank's system.

Before the reforms, Gansu Province had 24 village banks, 14 of which were sponsored by local rural commercial banks or city commercial banks. In March 2026, Gansu Rural Commercial Bank opened for business and simultaneously absorbed and merged four rural commercial bank-system village banks. Following the completion of the Lintao Village Bank acquisition, multiple village banks in Gansu will exit the historical stage.

According to incomplete statistics, as of August 14, 2026, 151 village banks have been approved for exit this year. In April 2026, the National Financial Regulatory Administration revised and issued the "Implementation Rules for Administrative Licensing Matters of Rural Small and Medium Banks (Draft for Comments)", providing a institutional framework for reforms of rural credit cooperatives and village banks. Currently, village banks with sound operations are also being included in acquisition sequences, as reforms shift from a risk-disposal phase to an industry-restructuring phase. Regulators and sponsoring banks aim to reorganize county-level financial license resources, gradually forming a new landscape of "provincial rural commercial banks plus city commercial bank sub-branches plus a small number of specialized village banks."

For Gansu, the launch of Gansu Rural Commercial Bank in 2026 marked the first provincial-level rural commercial bank to begin operations nationwide in that year, signaling a shift in the province's rural credit system from a joint bank model to a unified provincial legal entity model. With three provincial-level legal entities working in coordination, Gansu's county-level financial landscape is being reshaped. The Lintao Village Bank acquisition still requires approval at the extraordinary shareholders' meeting on August 28 and subsequent regulatory clearance before it can be formally implemented. Until then, Lintao Village Bank will continue to operate as an independent legal entity.