According to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's official website, the IPO review status of Dongguan Bank and Guangdong Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank has recently changed from "accepted" to "suspended," due to "financial materials having passed their validity period and needing to be resubmitted."

Since March 2024, the listing reviews of both banks have been paused six times for the same reason.

Both Banks Have Had Reviews Suspended Six Times

Dongguan Bank's listing plans can be traced back to as early as 2008, with a formal IPO application filed in 2019, and the review transferred to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange main board after the full registration-based system was implemented in 2023.

Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank began listing counseling in 2018, first submitted its IPO application in 2019, and was likewise transferred to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange main board review in 2023.

Since the transfer to the registration-based main board review, both banks have been suspended multiple times due to expired financial materials, with this instance being the sixth for each.

Under the Measures for the Administration of Registration of Initial Public Offering of Stocks published by the CSRC in February 2023, there are six circumstances under which the exchange or the CSRC shall suspend the corresponding issuance and listing review procedure or issuance registration procedure, including when the financial materials recorded in the issuer's registration application documents have passed their validity period and need to be resubmitted.

According to the measures, once the aforementioned circumstances disappear, the issuer may submit a resumption application, and the exchange or the CSRC will resume the issuance and listing review procedure or issuance registration procedure in accordance with regulations.

The prospectus shows that Dongguan Bank plans to raise 8.4 billion yuan, while Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank plans to raise 8.308 billion yuan.

Dongguan Bank's prospectus states that the funds raised from the issuance, after deducting issuance expenses, will be used entirely to supplement capital.

Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank's prospectus indicates that the raised funds will be used to supplement core tier-one capital.

Professor Tian Lihui of Nankai University's School of Finance told China News Service that the repeated suspensions of these two banks due to expired financial materials, on the surface, appear to be procedural oversights, but in reality reflect structural shortcomings in cross-entity coordination mechanisms and financial data governance.

In terms of continuous information disclosure, intermediary coordination, and IPO project governance, a dedicated working mechanism needs to be established to incorporate financial report updates and working paper verification into cyclical management, reducing the interference of procedural matters with application progress.

Performance Under Pressure While Awaiting IPO

At the same time, the operating fundamentals of both banks continue to face pressure.

In recent years, with the continuous deepening of domestic interest rate marketization, narrowing net interest margins in the banking sector, and intensifying regional peer competition, the profit space of regional small and medium-sized banks has been continuously compressed, with revenue and net profit growth rates persistently weakening.

Specifically, the prospectus shows that in 2024 and 2025, Dongguan Bank's revenue was 10.197 billion yuan and 9.301 billion yuan respectively, down 3.69% and 8.78% year-on-year; over the same period, the bank achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of 3.738 billion yuan and 3.082 billion yuan, down 8.10% and 17.55% respectively.

According to the bank's 2026 first-half information disclosure report, in the first half of 2026, the bank's revenue continued its downward trend, achieving revenue of 4.932 billion yuan during the reporting period, down 2% year-on-year, with the decline narrowing; it achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.408 billion yuan, up 1% year-on-year.

As of the end of June 2026, Dongguan Bank's core tier-one capital adequacy ratio was 9.12%, tier-one capital adequacy ratio was 10.21%, and capital adequacy ratio was 11.87%, up 0.03 percentage points, up 0.01 percentage points, and down 1.63 percentage points respectively from the end of the previous year.

A credit rating report on Dongguan Bank's 2026 undated capital bonds issued by Lianhe Ratings in August shows that due to factors such as declining market interest rates and intensifying peer competition, Dongguan Bank's net interest margin has continued to narrow, net profit has decreased, and profitability needs improvement.

Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank's performance also shows a downward trend, with revenue declining for three consecutive years.

Data shows that from 2023 to 2025, the bank achieved operating revenue of 6.861 billion yuan, 6.429 billion yuan, and 5.904 billion yuan, down 1.79%, 6.30%, and 8.16% year-on-year respectively; over the same period, it achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.382 billion yuan, 2.453 billion yuan, and 2.336 billion yuan, down 12.66%, up 2.99%, and down 4.80% respectively.

In the first half of 2026, the bank's revenue and net profit were 3.098 billion yuan and 1.298 billion yuan respectively, down 5.50% and 6.63% year-on-year.

A 2026 tracking rating report on Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank issued by Lianhe Ratings in July pointed out that since 2025, affected by a significant decline in credit yield levels, Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank's net interest margin has further narrowed, net interest income has decreased, and both operating revenue and profitability levels have declined in tandem, requiring attention to the impact of future net interest margin changes on income and profitability.

Five Banks Queuing for IPO

Since Lanzhou Bank listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange main board in January 2022, more than four years have passed without any bank completing a listing on the A-share market.

Currently, in the IPO review lists of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, a total of five small and medium-sized banks are queuing.

Specifically, the Shanghai Stock Exchange main board has three, including Huzhou Bank (review status "under inquiry"), Hubei Bank (review status "accepted"), and Kunshan Rural Commercial Bank (review status "accepted"); the Shenzhen Stock Exchange main board has two, Dongguan Bank and Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank (both with review status "suspended").

In addition, more than ten banks are in the listing counseling and filing stage, including Beijing Rural Commercial Bank, Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank, Hankou Bank, Wenzhou Bank, and Guilin Bank, which have not yet formally submitted prospectuses to the exchanges.

In recent years, multiple small and medium-sized banks have chosen to voluntarily withdraw their IPO applications and terminate the listing process.

In 2022, Xiamen Rural Commercial Bank withdrew its application; in 2024, Bozhou Yaodu Rural Commercial Bank, Jiangsu Hai'an Rural Commercial Bank, and Anhui Ma'anshan Rural Commercial Bank successively withdrew their materials; in 2025, Guangzhou Bank and Shunde Rural Commercial Bank also voluntarily terminated their IPOs, with multiple banks responding that it was due to "strategic planning adjustments."

Tian Lihui stated that the number of banks queuing for listing on the A-share market has shrunk from about 11 at the end of 2022 to the current five, with several banks voluntarily withdrawing their listing applications, indicating that some banks have chosen to retreat in the face of difficulties under the listing principle of "approve one when it is mature."

At the same time, Tian Lihui analyzed that during the queuing period, banks cannot passively wait. Both Dongguan Bank and Hubei Bank launched capital increases and share expansions during their IPO review periods, indicating that the endogenous urgency of capital supplementation will not ease just because of waiting.

More importantly, small and medium-sized banks should view the queuing period as a window for improving governance capabilities, focusing on core issues such as shareholder qualifications, related-party transactions, and penetrating identification of actual controllers, and proactively rectifying them, rather than treating rectification as a passive response to review.

Tian Lihui pointed out that whether a bank can ultimately open the door to the A-share market depends on whether it has the ability to continuously serve the local economy and gain investor recognition. This ability is not waiting to emerge during the queuing process, but is built through operations.