Yachts, private banquets, family trusts... Small banks are quietly securing the "county-level high-net-worth individuals"

For a long time, private banking clients holding tens of millions of assets, as the top customer group at the peak of the domestic banking pyramid, have long been deeply bound to large state-owned banks and leading joint-stock banks.

However, this batch of "top-tier" wealth has also begun to be courted by financial institutions in the sinking market.

In July 2026, Shaanxi Xianyang Rural Commercial Bank officially inaugurated its private banking department, making it one of the few private banking departments in China's rural credit cooperative system. Rural credit institutions and rural commercial banks that serve the front line of the rural economy and have the most room for strength improvement have also begun to step into the high-net-worth crowd service market. This clearly indicates that a brand new battle for wealth scramble is extending from the developed coastal regions to the hinterlands of Northeast and Northwest China.

What kind of characteristic services can these "grassroots" banks provide?

Will they build "characteristic services" with strong local features and human touch, provide services with extreme cost-effectiveness, or offer other unexpected services?

All of this is drawing widespread attention...

01 Rural Commercial Banks Are Queuing to Poach Top-Tier Clients

In China, banks are roughly divided into four groups by scale and business scope: large state-owned commercial banks including ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB, BOCOM and PSBC, national joint-stock banks including China Merchants Bank, Ping An Bank and CITIC Bank, urban commercial banks located in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Chengdu and other cities, as well as a larger number of grassroots rural commercial banks and even rural credit cooperatives rooted in primary-level markets.

From the perspective of customer service hierarchy, private banking clients with financial assets of over 6 million yuan are almost the top tier of bank customers in the industry.

The total number of these top-tier customers across the country should not exceed 2 million households (including duplicate customers in different banks), and more than half of them are concentrated in the five large banks: ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB and China Merchants Bank.

But now, rural commercial banks that do not have outstanding strength in China are also entering this market.

In July 2026, the private banking department of Shaanxi Xianyang Rural Commercial Bank was officially established. The bank stated that it will focus on high-net-worth individuals, high-quality entrepreneurs and high-end family customers, and is committed to building an integrated financial service model covering individuals, families and enterprises.

Looking across the country, Xianyang Rural Commercial Bank is not an isolated case. As early as May 2013, Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank established its private banking department, focusing on one-stop customized financial services for individual customers, making it an early pioneer in the rural commercial bank system that laid out the private banking sector.

Around 2020, rural commercial banks in developed cities such as Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank began to set up wealth management and private banking lines at their head offices to serve regional high-net-worth customer groups.

In February 2023, Shunde Rural Commercial Bank opened its private banking center, building a complete "1+N" private banking service system (i.e. "1 wealth advisor + N experts in various fields") to compete for local top-tier wealth customers.

At roughly the same period, Changshu Bank began to reap the fruits of private banking business by creating a differentiated positioning of "people-friendly private banking". Its 2025 annual report shows that the bank has a total of 4,519 private banking clients, with the total assets of private banking clients reaching 28.675 billion yuan.

Obviously, rural commercial banks and private banking business are not incompatible, but have great potential for development.

02 Provide Various High-End Exclusive Private Services

The report not only sorts out the fund return data, but also analyzes the excess return.

So what kind of services can rural commercial banks provide?

Do not be "misled" by their names. In fact, the "high-end customization" services of rural commercial banks are not "unsophisticated" at all.

For example, the private banking department of Shunde Rural Commercial Bank is said to have built a "1+N" comprehensive service model of "1 wealth advisor + N experts in various fields". This service model combines various expert resources to serve the bank's private banking clients, gold-level and above enterprise clients and other customers.

In the exclusive individual sector, the bank provides a wealth of life-oriented rights and interests.

Daily services include insurance protection, high-end fresh flower home delivery, professional housekeeping, home appliance cleaning, high-end magazine delivery and other services, focusing on family scenarios to improve customers' daily life quality.

Health management services cover all family members of customers, and can provide high-end exclusive physical examination, national famous doctor appointment and accompanying consultation, family oral care.

In terms of travel, it is equipped with domestic and foreign airport VIP lounges, fast security check, high-speed railway station VIP waiting rights, plus airport transfer car services, Didi designated driving, full-model car washing services to create a one-stop travel solution.

In addition, relying on the private banking club, with exclusive financial managers providing one-on-one docking and professional teams planning the whole process, the bank launches exclusive yacht afternoon tea, customized trips, and private banquets to meet customers' needs for leisure socializing and high-end gatherings.

There are also conventional financial services such as family enterprise inheritance, family wealth management and asset allocation, and capital turnover. On the whole, this set of services connects the three dimensions of individual, family and enterprise, and builds a comprehensive private banking service system covering "individual-family-enterprise".

03 "Cross-Border Customization" for Family Wealth

Rural commercial banks in developed regions pay more attention to providing customized services for customers' wealth and asset allocation.

For example, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank established a new wealth management and private banking department approved by the board of directors in 2023, bringing wealth and private banking business under the unified operation of the same department.

In terms of services, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank targets the differentiated investment needs of high-net-worth people, connects both online and offline channels, and launches exclusive private banking wealth management products.

In addition, the bank cooperates with trust, securities and fund institutions with outstanding reputation and performance in the market, and screens high-quality assets and mature investment strategies across the whole market.

In addition to asset appreciation, it also sets up insurance trust for local entrepreneur families, cooperates with market trust companies, combines the leverage effect of insurance with the asset isolation and targeted distribution functions of trust, to help the orderly inheritance of family wealth.

Apart from financial products, the rights and interest activities provided by private banking are also very rich.

In terms of health preservation, it provides services such as health science popularization lectures, famous doctor consultation, characteristic medical experience to meet customers' medical and health demands.

In terms of cultural life, it selects sinology, aesthetics, humanities and art resources to hold high-end art and cultural appreciation exclusive activities.

At the same time, it creates a series of "wealth afternoon tea" salons, inviting internal and external experts to carry out exchanges and sharing around investment planning, wealth inheritance, legal and tax practice.

Targeting private entrepreneurs in Shanghai, it launches an integrated service of business, investment and private banking, integrates industry expert resources to provide a package of solutions for enterprise operation, financing mergers and acquisitions, equity governance, and capital market related demands.

On the whole, it is also a full-range ecological service that covers daily life and targets core demands.

04 Private Banking Clubs and Differentiated Services

Rural commercial banks in Northeast, Northwest China and other regions have their own characteristics.

For example, Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank established its private banking department in May 2013, and began to output one-stop customized financial services for high-net-worth individual customers, including providing one-on-one customized wealth management products for investment demands of more than 1 million yuan per transaction, introducing trust products and asset management plans to enrich customers' investment options, and providing investment guidance for customers through the "Jiushang Wealth" micro-publication.

The bank has also built an exclusive value-added service area, creating an elegantly decorated private banking club with a private negotiation area, a comfortable leisure area and a modern multi-functional area inside, to realize a one-stop service experience of business leisure, sports health preservation and exclusive wealth management.

It is reported that the club provides experience projects such as tea art, red wine tasting and unlimited golf playing, and regularly holds art appreciation meetings, various lecture salons, and themed salons with themes of red wine, jewelry, porcelain and tea art, to build a high-end business social platform and strengthen the communication and connection between the bank and customers.

Around the diverse needs of customers' lives, the exclusive value-added services also include health care services such as VIP physical examination, expert appointment for medical treatment, traditional Chinese medicine health preservation, and private doctors. At the same time, it provides investment immigration consultation assistance, children's study abroad services, and customers can also enjoy exclusive privileges such as priority business handling, one-on-one consultation, and handling fee discounts.

The bank is also equipped with the characteristic business of full-automatic safe deposit boxes, which can keep valuables such as jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, contracts and documents for customers. The business features privacy, safety and flexible lease terms.

05 How Can Small Banks Provide "Top-Tier Services"?

In the wealth management market crowded with giants, how can small and medium-sized rural commercial banks gain a foothold?

The answer lies in "trust barrier" and "targeted services".

On the one hand, local rural commercial banks have been rooted in the local market for many years, and have established long-term relationships with some local private entrepreneurs and high-net-worth business households. This sense of trust built on geography and blood ties in an "acquaintance society" cannot be easily broken by other large banks.

At the same time, as a financial institution, it can provide targeted services that customers need by concentrating resources. Different from the private banking businesses of large banks that emphasize platform support and standardized service solutions, front-line rural commercial banks can often provide more flexible and targeted services.

For example, the "integrated business, investment and private banking service" launched by Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank for private entrepreneurs can integrate corporate financing mergers and acquisitions, equity arrangement, listing services with the family wealth management of entrepreneurs;

For another example, Shunde Rural Commercial Bank can also flexibly match inclusive operating loans and comprehensive consumption loans.

This deep binding that "manages your family's money and helps you develop your career" forms a strong differentiated competitive advantage.

06 The Only Way to Move towards "Comprehensive Development"

Although rural commercial banks in many regions have taken frequent actions in private banking business, it is undeniable that rural commercial banks that have set up independent private banking departments are still a minority on the whole, and the personal business of a large number of rural commercial banks in central and western regions and county-level areas still stays at the stage of ordinary retail business and wealth business.

But to some extent, opening a private banking department is the only way for a bank to improve its service hierarchy and service capabilities.

For many rural commercial banks that have newly entered this field, further expanding their private banking business in the future still needs to cross several practical thresholds:

The first is the supplement of "hard power", including the improvement of wealth management products and financial service capabilities. Generally speaking, limited by their own capabilities and regulatory requirements, ordinary rural commercial banks are difficult to develop exclusive private banking products on a large scale, highly rely on selling products of external institutions on a commission basis, and their independent asset allocation capabilities urgently need to be improved.

The second is the upgrading of "soft power". Real top-tier services rely on top-tier wealth advisors, and good customer services also require top-tier customer managers. The private banking business of some rural commercial banks is still operated in parallel with the retail wealth team. How to build a full-time, high-precision private banking investment advisory team is also an important test.

Of course, for rural commercial banks, testing the new wealth track of private banking should not be a vanity project that blindly pursues scale expansion. Only by leveraging strengths and avoiding weaknesses, combining local human touch with professional financial depth, and becoming the "top wealth butler" who understands local entrepreneurs, can small banks open up their own blue ocean in the vast sea of wealth management.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Capital Hub", written by Capital Hub, and released by 36Kr with authorization.