MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International), a globally recognized index provider, upgraded Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank’s (SHRCB) 2025 ESG rating from “A” to “AA,” placing the bank among the global leaders in its industry.
In recent years, SHRCB has thoroughly implemented the new development philosophy, upheld the political and people-oriented nature of financial work, diligently advanced the “Five Major Articles”, and actively fulfilled the requirements of the Municipal Party Committee, Municipal Government, and Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission regarding deepening ESG management. The bank has fully integrated ESG into its development strategy and core business operations, aiming to enhance its ESG rating by addressing management shortcomings and building long-term core competitiveness.
Strengthening ESG Governance to Anchor Sustainable Development
SHRCB continuously refines its three-tier ESG governance structure—Governance Layer, Management Layer, and Execution Layer—by embedding ESG metrics into strategic OKR tasks and performance evaluations at all levels, systematically ensuring the effective implementation of ESG strategies. The governance layer designates the Board of Directors as the highest leadership body for ESG management, establishing the Strategy Committee and the Rural Development and Sustainable Development (ESG) Committee to provide comprehensive leadership and coordination for the bank's sustainable development initiatives. The management layer has established an ESG Leading Group, co-chaired by the Chairman and President, to deliberate and decide on key ESG matters and drive forward priority ESG tasks.
Advancing Green Finance to Build a Beautiful China
Guided by China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, SHRCB vigorously advances green finance development and refines its green financial services system. The bank has repeatedly launched nationally or regionally pioneering green financial products, leveraging financial strength to incentivize corporate green transformation and serve the Beautiful China initiative. As of the end of September 2025, the bank's green loan balance reached RMB 64.36 billion, representing a 3.31% increase from the previous year-end. Concurrently, SHRCB practices green operations by advancing energy conservation, carbon reduction, paperless offices, and green branch construction. It has been honored with titles such as "Outstanding Unit for Green Financial Services in Shanghai Banking" and "Shanghai Green Banking Demonstration Branch."
Committed to Financial Services for the People to Create Distinctive Value
"Inclusive Finance Delivers Better Life" remains SHRCB's unwavering mission. Leveraging its unique strengths, the bank actively develops three initiatives—rural revitalization, technology finance and financial empowerment for social governance—to create value for its clients.
SHRCB adheres to providing financial services that are real-economy-oriented, small-business-focused, and granular in approach. It has established an inclusive financial service system centered on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, actively integrating into the government's grid-based rural governance efforts. The bank continuously advances integrated online and offline financial solutions for whole-village credit facilities, contributing financial strength to rural revitalization. As of the end of September 2025, the bank's inclusive micro and small enterprise loan balance reached RMB 91.10 billion, representing a 5.19% increase from the previous year-end. Its agricultural loan balance stood at RMB 65.15 billion, with inclusive agricultural loans totaling RMB 15.09 billion, maintaining its leading position in the regional market.
Since 2009, SHRCB has deepened its commitment to technology finance, exploring new pathways to integrate it with inclusive finance. Aligned with Shanghai's development as an international science and technology innovation hub, the bank focuses on early-stage, small-scale, and high-tech enterprises. The bank innovatively introduced and implemented a "venture capital-style" credit mechanism alongside the "XinDongNeng Six-Dimensional Empowerment" system, providing comprehensive "financial + non-financial" services covering the entire growth cycle for Shanghai's technology SMEs. As of the end of September 2025, the bank's outstanding loans to technology enterprises exceeded RMB 120 billion, with loans to technology-based SMEs accounting for 81.06% of the total, providing targeted support for the development of small and medium-sized technology innovation enterprises.
SHRCB actively participates in building a "People's City," integrating community needs, market expectations, and banking expertise to vigorously advance the "XinJiaYuan" public welfare service project. By consolidating resources from communities, banks, enterprises, and schools, it integrates eight distinctive services—including health care, senior universities, family education, community stages, and public services—into community life, continuously exploring new models for empowering social governance. By the end of September 2025, the bank had established 1,033 "XinJiaYuan" public service stations covering all 216 subdistricts and towns across the city, hosting over 5,000 distinctive events.
Furthermore, in October 2025, SHRCB was recognized by CCTV Finance as one of the "Top 100 ESG Pioneers in the Yangtze River Delta Region (2025)", honored by the China Listed Companies Association for its "2025 Outstanding Sustainable Development Practice Case", and featured by China Financial Media as a "2025 Typical ESG Case Study in Banking". Its S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) score reached a new high, placing it among industry leaders.
Looking ahead to the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan” period, SHRCB will continue to deepen ESG management, steadfastly pursue the Chinese path of financial development, drive sustainable high-quality development for both the bank and the broader economy and society, and achieve the harmonious integration of commercial and social value.
