HSBC expands rural bank franchise to Beijing

HSBC has opened a rural bank in the Miyun County of Beijing, further expanding its rural banking franchise in mainland China. The Beijing Miyun HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited is the fourth HSBC rural bank to be opened since 2007, when HSBC became the first international bank to enter China’s rural banking market.

"Our vision is to build a viable, profitable and sustainable banking franchise in China’s rural areas. No market is strategically more important to HSBC than China. We will continue to invest in developing our own business in both urban and rural areas, as well as continuing to work with our strategic partners in China," said Stephen Green, HSBC Group Chairman, during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Miyun Rural Bank.

HSBC now operates rural banks in China’s western, central, northern and eastern regions. HSBC Bank (China) Company Limited, the locally incorporated unit of HSBC, has a network of 79 outlets across 19 major cities – the largest of any international bank.

HSBC’s rural banks offer financial services tailored to meet the needs of China’s rural areas, providing lending services to rural enterprises and individuals based on cash-flow analysis and the evaluation of customers’ repayment ability. This helps resolve the problems often faced by rural enterprises and farmers who sometimes lack assets that can be used as traditional collateral. HSBC’s rural banks also offer supply-chain financing in cooperation with leading small and medium enterprises that have longstanding relationships with customers.

Miyun County, where the new HSBC rural bank is located, is 80 km northeast of Beijing city centre and has a geographic area of 2,229 square kilometres. The county has a population of around 430,000, over half of whom are involved in agri-tourism, farming and other related activities such as farm product processing. In modernising its agricultural sector, the county is placing great importance on ecological development. As Beijing’s largest county, Miyun is one of the areas designated by China’s banking authorities as a pilot location for rural banking reforms.