Bank of Communications Ltd, part- owned by HSBC Holdings Plc, is in talks to buy stakes in rural banks in Jiangsu Province, said Li Jun, president of the state-owned lender, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

The talks are "under way and proceeding smoothly," Li said on Friday in Beijing. He declined to say how many rural commercial banks are being targeted or how large the stakes may be.

BoCom, the smallest of China's five major state-owned banks, may try to tap profits from serving China's 800 million farmers. President Hu Jintao has made boosting rural incomes a priority, promoting loans to farmers and raising public works spending.

BoCom Chairman Jiang Chaoliang said on October 18 that the bank is considering setting up branches in rural areas. "Rural areas are less developed, hence they have potential," he said.

Jiangsu in eastern China is the nation's second largest in foreign trade and fifth biggest by population.

(Shanghai Daily November 6, 2007)