Bank of Ningbo plans to add four or five branches in the Yangtze River Delta this year, a person with direct knowledge to this issue said this morning.

The bank will also shift its credit card center, capital operations center, risk control center and wealth management center for the retail business to Shanghai to leverage the mature financial environment of the city, said the person, who declined to be identified because it has not been publicly announced.

The city commercial bank in neighboring Zhejiang Province focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises and retail clients.

The wealth management center will take the products research and development responsibilities for the bank's retail businesses.

SME clients accounted for more than 90 percent of the bank's corporate clients in terms of lending and numbers.

The bank opened a Shanghai branch in May.

The Shanghai branch's lending sat around 1.3 billion yuan (US$182.84 million) to 1.4 billion yuan with a zero bad loan ratio.

The bank's net profits topped 948 million yuan last year.