"Each province should have at least one bank to provide access to small loans, just like the function of capillary vessels," said Tang Min, deputy China representative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

"The most remote counties should be the primary targets,"said Du Xiaoshan, an expert on small rural loans with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "The current bottleneck in rural financial services mainly lies in central and west China, as well as parts of northeast China, especially in counties under the national poverty line," said Du.

Large financial institutions have shown an interest in the countryside as well, with a dozen financial institutions submitting applications for rural expansion, said CBRC officials.

Foreign-funded banks including HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank are also active in tapping the rural market.

Although they have been welcomed by farmers, the emerging village banks have encountered some growing pains. Huimin Village Bank, for example, lost 190,000 yuan in the nine months that it was in operation in 2007, largely because it did not explore the business scene thoroughly enough.

"Our goal is for a double win. We hope to start making profits this year and also make it easier for farmers to get access to loans," said Cai. "We will be able to make ends meet when the savings total 50 million yuan and loans reach 30 million yuan, if the rate of non-performing loans is around one percent," Cai added.

Eyeing the underdeveloped rural financial market, the National Bureau of Statistics has estimated that the country would need 15 trillion yuan to fund its new countryside construction by 2020, most of which would come from financial institutions. But the rural financial network that's in place at present won't meet that demand.

"Village banks will mushroom to help fill the gap," said Cai. "We've found in our market research that there is a huge demand for banking services from individuals and small businesses in the countryside."

The way to boost the village bank business is to quickly set up a rural service system and extend the service network to all rural communities. So far, village banks have been far inferior to agricultural banks and rural cooperatives in service networks, said Cai. "We also need to flesh out a set of operating methods that meet our own unique features," said Cai.

There's been good news from Huimin Village Bank. As of February 14, it had written 3.49 million yuan in new loans. It will open up more outlets in the county seat and towns to gradually expand small-scale lending across the county. And its capital stock is expected to rise from 2 million yuan to 30 million yuan this year.