By 2005, China has more than 30,000 banking or financial institutions, including 113 city commercial banks. Known as "the third echelon of China's banking industry" and stemmed from the shareholding reform of former urban credit cooperatives, China's city commercial bank is a local joint-stock commercial bank established by local government, enterprises and residents. It is also a first-class legal entity merged from numerous legal organizations, serving for the development of local economy. Taking the establishment of Shenzhen City Cooperative Bank as the starting point in July 1995, China's city commercial banking began its arduous course on Chinese financial platform. From the view of banking functions, city commercial banks are commercial financial service institutions, so it should firstly have common characteristics of commercial banks. At the same time, because of its special development course, China's city commercial banks have their own unique characteristics, i.e. China's city commercial banks are local commercial banks as well as joint-stock commercial banks.

Along with the constantly innovations of financial products and financial services, the crossover and combination among banking, securities and insurance industry actually broke the boundary of individual operation. Mixed operation is developing smoothly, establishment of fund companies, assets securitization, personal financial services from the banks, and investment-related insurance are the typical examples. The year of 2006 witness the further loose of financial regulation together with the debut of new products and services. Due to the huge scale of assets, network and clients, the advantages of banks in mixed operation is fairly obvious, which will help to greatly increase the intermediate services revenues of commercial banks.

The year of 2006 is crucial for the development of China's banking industry. With the continuous deepening reform on Chinese financial system, particularly, following the end of transition period, Chinese banking industry faces many opportunities and challenges from the profound environment changes. 

China's city commercial banking industry will face fierce competition with the completion of transition period of China's entry into WTO; meanwhile, the gradual market opening to foreign banks will stimulate more competitions. The challenges from foreign banks make domestic banks not merely face a problem of development, but also a key problem concerning the surviving. From the view of products, China's city commercial banks are calling for more clear market positioning, high-quality products, stronger comprehensive services to deal with challenges. Along with the development of China's economy, the market scale of personal banking services will be gradually expanded. At the same time, individual demand for banking services tends to be multiple, the significance of personal banking services will be gradually improved in banking industry.

Up to the end of December 2005, the total assets of China's city commercial banks had topped RMB 2.04 trillion, increased by 19.4%; the total liabilities was  RMB 1.95 trillion, up 18.6%. In 2005, China's city commercial banks explored and innovated on displacement and operations by encircling the assets and removing the historical burden, which made great progress. By the end of 2005, the average capital adequacy ratio of China's city commercial banks was 5.135, growing 3.82 % over the year of 2004.  The number of city commercial banks with the capital adequacy ratio up to 8% rose from 18 in early 2005 to 36; the average provision coverage ratio of China's city commercial banks hit 23.75, with a year-on-year increase of 8.9%. Among them, the provision coverage ratio of 10 city commercial banks including Ningbo Commercial Bank and Suzhou Commercial Bank exceeded 100%. Up to the end of 2005, the non-performing loans of China's city commercial banks totaled RMB 84.2 billion, decreasing RMB 21.7 billion compared with 2004; the average non-performing loan ratio was 7.73%, dropping 3.96% over the end of 2004 and near 30% over 5 years ago. All these facts proved that the asset quality of city commercial banks has improved. 

Total Assets of China's City Commercial Banks, 2001-2005 (Unit: RMB Billion)

China's Top 50 City Commercial Banks according to Comprehensive Competitiveness

2. Comprehensive competitiveness of city commercial banks in Pan-Pearl River Delta economic zone   
2.1 Shenzhen Commercial Bank 
2.1.1 Overview 
2.1.2 Main financial indicators 
2.1.3 Core competitiveness 
2.2 Dongguan City Commercial Bank 
2.3 Fuzhou City Commercial Bank 
2.3.1 Overview  
2.3.2 Main financial indicators 
2.3.3 Core competitiveness  
2.4 Quanzhou City Commercial Bank 
2.4.1 Overview 
2.4.2 Main financial indicators 
2.4.3 Core competitiveness  
2.5 Liuzhou City Commercial Bank 
2.6 Xiamen City Commercial Bank 
2.6.1 Overview  
2.6.2 Core competitiveness  

3. Comprehensive competitiveness of city commercial banks in Yangtze River Delta economic zone
3.1 Bank of Shanghai  
3.1.1 Overview
3.1.2 Main financial indicators  
3.1.3 Core competitiveness  
3.2 Hangzhou City Commercial Bank 
3.2.1 Overview  
3.2.2 Core competitiveness 
3.3 Nanjing City Commercial Bank 
3.3.1 Overview  
3.3.2 Main financial indicators  
3.3.3 Core competitiveness  
3.4 Taizhou City Commercial Bank 
3.4.1 Overview  
3.4.2 Main financial indicators  
3.4.3 Core competitiveness  
3.5 Bank of Jiangsu 
3.5.1 Bank of Jiangsu is currently under construction   
3.5.2 Suzhou City Commercial Bank   
3.5.3 Wuxi City Commercial Bank   
3.5.4 Yangzhou City Commercial Bank  
3.5.5 Nantong City Commercial Bank   
3.6 Shaoxing City Commercial Bank 
3.6.1 Overview   
3.6.2 Core competitiveness  
3.7 Ningbo Commercial Bank 
3.7.1 Overview 
3.7.2 Main financial indicators  
3.7.3 Core competitiveness  
3.8 Wenzhou City Commercial Bank   
3.8.1 Overview 
3.8.2 Main financial indicators 
3.8.3 Core competitiveness  
3.9 Jiaxing City Commercial Bank 
3.9.1 Overview   
3.9.2 Core competitiveness   

4. Comprehensive competitiveness of city commercial banks in northeast economic zone 
4.1 Dalian City Commercial Bank   
4.1.1 Overview 
4.1.2 Operating performance in 2004 
4.1.3 Future development 
4.2 Huludao City Commercial Bank  
4.2.1 Overview 
4.2.2 Core competitiveness 
4.3 Jinzhou City Commercial Bank 
4.3.1 Overview  
4.3.2 Core competitiveness  
4.4 Harbin City Commercial Bank  
4.4.1 Overview  
4.4.2 Core competitiveness 
4.5 Qiqihar City Commercial Bank   
4.5.1 Overview   
4.5.2 Core competitiveness 
 
5 Comprehensive competitiveness of city commercial banks in western economic zone 
5.1 Xi'an City Commercial Bank 
5.1.1 Overview 
5.1.2 Core competitiveness
5.2 Panzhihua City Commercial Bank   
5.3 Nanchong City Commercial Bank 
5.3.1 Overview   
5.3.2 Core competitiveness  
5.4 Guiyang Commercial Bank 
5.5 Urumchi City Commercial Bank 
5.5.1 Overview   
5.5.2 Core competitiveness  
5.6 Yinchuan City Commercial Bank   
5.6.1 Overview    
5.6.2 Core competitiveness
5.7 Baotou City Commercial Bank 
5.7.1 Overview   
5.7.2 Core competitiveness  
5.8 Xianyang City Commercial Bank 
5.9 Baoji City Commercial Bank  
5.10 Chengdu City Commercial Bank  
5.10.1 Overview  
5.10.2 Core competitiveness  

6. Comprehensive competitiveness of city commercial banks in Bohai Sea Rim economic zone
6.1 Tianjin City Commercial Bank  
6.1.1 Overview   
6.1.2 Main financial indicators 
6.1.3 Core competitiveness  
6.2 Bank of Beijing   
6.2.1 Overview 
6.2.2 Main financial indicators 
6.2.3 Core competitiveness   
6.3 Jinan City Commercial Bank   
6.3.1 Overview   
6.3.2 Main financial indicators  
6.3.3 Core competitiveness  
6.4 Rizhao City Commercial Bank 
6.4.1 Overview   
6.4.2 Main financial indicators  
6.4.3 Core competitiveness
6.5 Zibo City Commercial Bank   
6.5.1 Overview    
6.5.2 Core competitiveness  
6.6 Langfang City Commercial Bank 
6.6.1 Overview   
6.6.2 Hebei province firstly set up city commercial bank cooperation organization 
6.7 Yantai City Commercial Bank 
6.7.1 Overview 
6.7.2 Main financial indicators  
6.7.3 Core competitiveness  
6.8 Linyi City Commercial Bank 
6.8.1 Overview   
6.8.2 Core competitiveness  

7. Comprehensive competitiveness of city commercial banks in central economic zone
7.1 Changsha City Commercial Bank
7.1.1 Overview   
7.1.2 Core competitiveness  
7.2 Anhui Commercial Bank  
7.2.1 Overview 
7.2.2 Overall operation status of Anhui Commercial Bank in the first half of 2006  
7.2.3 Overall operation status of former Hefei City Commercial Bank in 2004 
7.2.4 Core competitiveness of future development of Anhui Commercial Bank 
7.3 Jiaozuo City Commercial Bank 
7.3.1 Overview   
7.3.2 Development and growing up of Jiaozuo City Commercial Bank
7.3.3 Various operation indicators of Jiaozuo City Commercial Bank created new records in 2005 
7.4 Jiujiang City Commercial Bank 
7.4.1 Overview  
7.4.2 Main financial indicators   
7.4.3 Core competitiveness