More than 60 village and township banks disappeared at the beginning of the year.

Recently, the Bank of Communications was approved to acquire and rebuild a village bank under its control, becoming the first example of a state-owned bank "village transformation support" in the new year, and also the tenth example of state-owned banks promoting "village transformation support" for village banks since last year. Since 2025, in addition to the Bank of Communications, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China have also started to promote "village transformation support" for their village banks. Many industry insiders believe that with the central economic work conference setting the tone for "reducing quantity and improving quality" for small and medium-sized financial institutions, the reform and transformation of small and medium-sized banks will accelerate this year, with restructuring and mergers still being the mainstream mode. Data shows that more than 450 small and medium-sized banks will exit the market in 2025, with more than 280 of them being village banks, with the most exits in Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Hubei, and other areas.