Henan Rural Commercial Bank Approved to Absorb 9 Rural Credit Institutions, Raising Registered Capital to RMB

On July 27, the Henan Financial Regulatory Bureau issued an approval document agreeing to Henan Rural Commercial Bank (hereafter Henan Rural Commercial Bank) increasing its registered capital by RMB 8,047,394,081 through absorption and merger, changing from RMB 91,638,155,275 to RMB 99,685,549,356.

The same day, Henan Rural Commercial Bank announced that, with approval from the National Financial Regulatory Administration Henan Bureau, it would absorb and merge nine institutions including rural commercial banks (rural credit cooperatives) and village banks in Hebi and Luohe cities, with all existing business of the relevant institutions to be taken over by Henan Rural Commercial Bank. The nine institutions are Hebi Rural Commercial Bank Co. , Ltd. , Henan Xunxian Rural Commercial Bank Co. , Qixian Rural Credit Cooperative, Wuyang County Rural Credit Cooperative, Luohe Yancheng District Rural Credit Cooperative, Henan Linying Rural Commercial Bank Co. , Luohe Yuanhui District Rural Credit Cooperative, Luohe Zhaoling District Rural Credit Cooperative, and Wuyang Yuchuan Village Bank Co. After the absorption and merger is completed, the above nine institutions will be converted into branches of Henan Rural Commercial Bank, which will succeed all assets, liabilities, business, personnel, outlets, and all other rights and obligations of the nine institutions.

Regarding customer rights, Henan Rural Commercial Bank stated that customers' originally held accounts, bank cards, passbooks, USB keys, and legally signed contracts and agreements remain valid, and all services will remain unchanged.

In recent years, reforms of the rural credit system have continued to advance, with the formation of provincial-level rural commercial united banks and the integration of county-level legal entities becoming important reform directions. Since 2023, many regions have successively initiated reforms of their rural credit systems, using provincial-level rural commercial banks or rural commercial united bank models to strengthen unified management and risk prevention capabilities. Henan is one of the provinces with a relatively large rural credit system. On July 28, 2024, the Henan Rural Commercial Bank preparation work group announced that 25 legal entities including Henan Rural Commercial United Bank Co. and Zhengzhou Rural Commercial Bank Co. had separately completed internal corporate governance procedures, reviewed and approved matters related to forming Henan Rural Commercial Bank through new establishment merger (subject to regulatory approval of the name), and formed resolutions. All debts and claims of the 25 legal entities will be assumed by the established Henan Rural Commercial Bank. The operating profits or losses of the 25 legal entities from the date of asset verification baseline to the opening of Henan Rural Commercial Bank will be enjoyed and borne by all shareholders of the established Henan Rural Commercial Bank.

In February 2025, the National Financial Regulatory Administration disclosed an approval agreeing to the establishment of Henan Rural Commercial Bank. In February of that year, Henan Rural Commercial Bank was approved to commence operations.