Businessman aims to blaze banking trail

Hoping to help cash-strapped small and medium-sized enterprises in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, Yang Jiaxing has applied for regulators' permission to launch a private bank.

Yang, 67, who founded the first private shareholding urban credit cooperative in Wenzhou more than a decade ago, is trying to recruit enough SMEs to participate in the project before submitting more detailed plans to the Wenzhou branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

"We're still discussing with potential shareholders of the bank and certain SME-related associations to ensure that we can launch the bank as soon as possible after the draft plan is approved," said Yang.