Farmers Bank of China

The Farmers Bank of China (simplified Chinese: 中国农民银行; traditional Chinese: 中國農民銀行; pinyin: Zhōngguó nóngmín yínháng) was a former Taiwanese bank. It was founded on April 1, 1933, in Hankou, Mainland China, from the amalgamation of provincial agricultural banks in Henan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangxi. Governed by the Farmers Bank of China Law, the bank was established to stimulate agricultural development by providing lines of credit to farmers and rural landowners. The loans were intended for use to purchase equipment and crops. The bank was initially under majority government ownership.

Farmers Bank of China[1]

A 1941 banknote issued by the Farmers Bank of China
Type	Joint stock company
Industry	Banking
Successor	Taiwan Cooperative Bank (in 2006)
Founded	1933 in Hankou, China
Defunct	2006
Headquarters	85 NanKing East Road, Section 2, Taipei, Taiwan
Key people	Chen Zhong, Chairman
Products	Financial Services
Revenue	USD 430 million (2005)
Total assets	USD 18.23 billion (2005)
Number of employees	2,339 (2005)
Website	www.farmerbank.com.tw

The bank became one of the four major banks of the Republican period. Along with the Central Bank of China (currently the Central Bank of the Republic of China), Bank of China and Bank of Communications, the Farmers Bank of China was allowed to issue its own banknotes until 1942. The bank was relocated to Chongqing in 1937, along with Kuomintang-led Nationalist Government during Second Sino-Japanese War.

The landslide victory of Chinese Communist Party on Chinese Civil War forced the bank to flee to Taiwan in 1949. The bank's remaining assets in Mainland China were seized by CCP and incorporated into the People's Bank of China. Later, the Agricultural Bank of China was established and plays the similar role which the former Farmers Bank had done.

The Farmers Bank was banned to reopen the business by Kuomintang until 1967. From 1967 until 2006, the bank opened and operated 107 branches throughout Taiwan. It also operated overseas offices in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Taiwanese government undertook a reform of the banking industry in 1992 with the listing of state-owned banks on the stock exchange. The Farmers Bank of China was partially privatized in 1994, and all government shares were put on the market in 1999. Accordingly, the Farmers Bank of China Law was repealed by Legislative Yuan in 2005 to complete full privatization of the bank.

The bank was the 14th largest lender in Taiwan until the bank was acquired by the Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) on May 1, 2006.[2]