Shanghai to merge rural credit co-ops

Shanghai plans to merge its 231 rural credit co-operatives to form the city's third commercial bank, Reuters reported. The new bank, to be called Shanghai Co-operative Bank, would still focus on rural clients but would also offer retail banking services in urban areas. It has been working with Germany's Wincor Nixdorf Retail & Banking Systems to set up an automatic teller machine network.

Guo Yushuo, spokesman of the Shanghai Rural Credit Co-operative Union, said that the co-operatives controlled combined assets of more than Yn85bn, with deposits of Yn70bn at the end of 2002, making it the sixth largest domestic bank in the city.