By the end of September, 187 proposals to set up rural village banks from 18 banks and financial organizations had been approved by the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Seventy-five percent of the projects were expected to be located in the central and western areas of the country.

"We've been encouraging banks and financial agencies to move their focus to launch rural village banks in the central and western regions this year," said an officer at the CBRC.

At the moment, there are 481 village banks, which were mostly launched between 2010 and 2011, in central and western areas.

According to data released by the CBRC, there were a total of 858 rural village banks, loans agencies and mutual-aid funding associations in the country at the end of September.

yuran@chinadaily.com.cn