By the end of 2001, China had three policy banks, four State-owned commercial banks, 10 share-holding banks and 109 city commercial banks, the bureau said.

It also has 1,049 city credit cooperatives, 38,057 rural credit cooperatives, 71 financial companies, 12 financial leasing companies, 136 trust and investment companies, 109 securities companies, 13 insurance companies and 191 foreign-funded financial institutions.

The combined assets of these financial institutions amounted to 23,200 billion yuan (US$2,795.2 billion) by the end of June this year, 14 times those of 1989, the bureau said.

Statistics show that currently one in three people own one bankcard. At the end of the 1980s, an average of one in 3,800 people had a bankcard.

The capital market developed from practically nothing at the beginning of the 1990s to an important part of the country's financial sector.

By the end of April this year, 1,175 domestic companies were listed on the domestic and foreign stock markets, which helped collect a combined amount of 810.1 billion yuan (US$97.6 billion), the bureau said.

(China Daily October 21, 2002)