Turning local specialties from remote mountains into "golden brands" and injecting a "boost" into busy production lines... Across the vast rural land, my country's banking industry's financial services are permeating every aspect of economic production and life.
The recent Central Economic Work Conference proposed to coordinate the urbanization process, with county towns as the main carriers, and the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, so as to promote high-quality development of the county economy. It also stressed the need to continuously consolidate and expand the achievements in poverty alleviation, incorporate routine assistance into the overall implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, and firmly safeguard against large-scale relapse into poverty.
2025 marks the final year of the five-year transition period for consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation achievements and effectively connecting them with rural revitalization. Solid progress has been made in the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Looking ahead to 2026, experts believe that there is still considerable room for the banking industry to support rural revitalization.
Rural revitalization credit support continues to increase
"The core essence of the Central Economic Work Conference's deployment of comprehensive rural revitalization lies in 'systematic coordination' and 'adherence to bottom lines,'" said Gao Zhengyang, a special researcher at Jiangsu Commercial Bank, in an interview with the Financial Times. From a practical perspective, the policy requires that in promoting the integration of industry, factors of production, and ecology, the quality and efficiency of growth must be balanced with the protection of bottom lines, so as to forge a high-quality rural revitalization path that is both inclusive and sustainable.
Experts believe that my country's banking industry has made significant progress in supporting rural revitalization, mainly in three aspects: First, credit issuance has continued to increase, and the scale of agricultural loans has achieved steady growth; second, product innovation has improved adaptability, with many banks launching customized products such as "specialized mortgage loans" and "specialized supply chain finance" tailored to the characteristics of the agricultural industry chain, and the matrix of inclusive finance, rural micro-loans, and supply chain finance tools has been gradually enriched; third, service accessibility has continued to improve, with banking institutions actively applying digital technology to reduce service costs, improve service efficiency, and effectively expand service coverage.
At the same time, it needs to be recognized that the collaborative financing mechanism for the industrial chain in the field of rural revitalization is still imperfect. "Faced with the funding bottlenecks in the upstream and downstream of the agricultural industrial chain, cross-industry and cross-regional collaborative financing channels have not yet been fully opened up. In addition, the support for medium and long-term funds is insufficient, and the supply of medium and long-term funds needed for the development of rural industrial chains is limited, making it difficult to cultivate large-scale and market-oriented sustainable development momentum," said Gao Zhengyang.
Experts believe that, going forward, banking institutions should further promote supply chain finance models, leveraging the data flow of core enterprises in the industrial chain to tailor flexible and adaptable financial products for upstream and downstream farmers, shorten the capital turnover cycle, and build an integrated credit service solution centered on counties.
Innovative financial products for the industrial chain
In July of this year, the People's Bank of China and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Financial Services for Rural Reform and Promoting the Comprehensive Revitalization of Rural Areas," which clearly proposed to deepen financial services for rural industries that enrich the people, broaden mortgage and guarantee methods, innovate financing models and exclusive financial products for rural "local specialties," and promote the "one chain, one policy" financial service model.
Since 2025, the banking industry has accelerated the implementation of relevant policy requirements to empower rural characteristic industrial chains.
Liangshan County in Jining City, Shandong Province, is a core area for beef cattle breeding and has a long tradition of raising Luxi Yellow Cattle. Today, the beef cattle industry has become an important support for local farmers to increase their income and achieve prosperity, as well as for rural revitalization. In recent years, with the improvement of breeding technology and the expansion of market demand, farmers have become increasingly eager for large-scale and standardized development. However, the difficulty of capital turnover has once constrained the pace of industrial upgrading.
"I've always wanted to expand my breeding scale, but I was always stuck on the money issue. Now the policies are better, the bank loan quotas are sufficient and the loans are disbursed quickly, so I feel more confident and dare to go for it." Farmer Brother Xue said as he fed the more than 20 calves he had just purchased.
Livestock farmers are the starting point of the beef cattle industry chain and are crucial to the high-quality development of the entire industry. The Jining Branch of Postal Savings Bank of China has taken proactive measures, prioritizing the beef cattle industry in Liangshan County. The branch organized its Liangshan County sub-branch to conduct in-depth, one-on-one, close-to-the-ground assessments of financing needs in fields and livestock sheds. Simultaneously, it innovatively launched a dedicated "Beef Cattle Industry Loan" product, addressing the characteristics of beef cattle farming—long cycles, high investment, and slow returns—by optimizing the credit granting process, simplifying approval procedures, and providing various guarantee methods such as credit, collateral, and guarantees. The maximum credit loan amount can reach 3 million yuan, effectively covering the funding needs of farmers of different sizes.
To date, the Jining branch of Postal Savings Bank of China has provided loans totaling over 400 million yuan to nearly 500 beef cattle farmers in Liangshan County. The funds cover all aspects of the industry chain, including cattle introduction, feed procurement, shed renovation, and disease prevention management, effectively promoting the transformation and upgrading of the local beef cattle industry from a small-scale, scattered, and weak sector to a clustered, standardized, and branded one.
"In terms of serving rural revitalization, my country's banking industry has seen continuous growth in inclusive agricultural loans in recent years, with large banks making particularly significant contributions and becoming a backbone force in supporting rural revitalization," said Lou Feipeng, a researcher at China Postal Savings Bank, in an interview with the Financial Times.
Learning from the experience of the "Ten Thousand Villages Project" to promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas
During his time working in Zhejiang, General Secretary Xi Jinping personally planned and promoted the "Thousands of Villages Demonstration, Ten Thousands of Villages Renovation" project, creating successful experiences and practical examples for promoting the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. In recent years, various regions and departments have thoroughly studied the experience of the "Ten Thousand Villages Demonstration, Ten Thousands of Villages Renovation" project to promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, and the banking industry is no exception.
In 2022, the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee promoted the implementation of the "High-Quality Development Project of 100 Counties, 1,000 Towns and 10,000 Villages" (hereinafter referred to as the "10 ...
This year, the banking sector has continued to optimize its credit structure, with increased support for key areas. In particular, inclusive financial products and services focused on rural revitalization are becoming increasingly comprehensive.
For example, Guangfa Bank actively leverages its comprehensive financial advantages to focus on urban and rural infrastructure construction in areas such as transportation, water conservancy, power grids, logistics, and information technology, promoting the implementation of a number of key projects that strengthen the foundation and benefit the long term. In Huizhou, Guangfa Bank approved a 3 billion yuan credit line for Renping Island Ring Expressway Co., Ltd., helping to optimize and upgrade the regional transportation network; and provided an 80 million yuan loan to Huidong Water Affairs Co., Ltd. to support water supply infrastructure construction and improve the equalization of urban and rural public services. In Zhanjiang, as one of the lead underwriters of Guangdong Province's special bonds, Guangfa Bank actively leveraged its advantages as the designated service bank for Guangdong Province's rural revitalization special bonds, assisting in the application for 22 "marine ranching" projects, accounting for two-thirds of the total number of projects submitted by Zhanjiang City; at the same time, it issued a 138 million yuan loan to Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products Group to support its expansion of the marine economic industrial chain and promote the transformation and upgrading of the county's economy towards a "blue economy."
Lou Feipeng stated that in practice, the banking industry has adopted digital technology to develop digital finance and achieve the downward extension of financial services. It has also innovated financial products or launched customized products to increase the financial supply for rural revitalization. In addition, it has raised funds through special financial bonds for agricultural loans to reduce funding costs and improve lending capacity.
However, it is worth noting that currently, the credit information of some agricultural entities in counties is still scattered across agricultural, tax, and social security systems, making it difficult for financial institutions to build complete risk control models; some small and medium-sized banks still rely on traditional collateral and guarantees, and are not receptive to new types of collateral such as agricultural facilities, live livestock and poultry, and land management rights; rural branches lack technical personnel and have weak digital risk control capabilities, making it difficult to support the implementation of advanced service models such as "one policy per chain" and "financial chain leader system".
This means that there is still room for improvement in the banking sector's support for rural revitalization. Lou Feipeng believes that banking institutions should deepen the construction of digital financial infrastructure, promote data sharing with departments such as agriculture and rural affairs, market supervision, and taxation, build a nationwide agricultural credit information platform, and improve the accuracy of "whole-village credit granting" and "credit profiling." Furthermore, they should focus on county-level characteristic industrial clusters, providing comprehensive financial services covering the entire chain of production, processing, warehousing, and sales; expanding the scope of collateral such as rural land management rights, agricultural facilities, agricultural machinery, and agricultural product warehouse receipts; exploring a "insurance + futures + credit" linkage model; and lowering financing thresholds.
