Urban commercial bank

The first urban commercial bank was Shenzhen City Commercial Bank in 1995. In 1998, the central bank of China, People's Bank of China, advocated urban credit cooperative to change their names into urban commercial banks.

Most city commercial banks have strong ties to their local government and are majority or wholly state owned. Since 2005 some city commercial banks diversify their shareholders, inviting Chinese and international private companies to take minority shares, merging and cross-shareholding. Some of the banks have listed their shares.

Since 2008, an observable trend has emerged for city commercial banks to extend business beyond their home region. They are also often the main shareholder behind village and township banks (VTB). Taizhou City Commercial Bank, Bank of Beijing, Bank of Tianjin, Bank of Ningbo and Bank of Weifang are examples for city commercial banks operating in such ways.