Abstract: In recent years, due to the increasing uncertainty of the global economy, the continuous adjustment of China’s industrial structure and the fintech revolution, the fierce competition in the banking industry has been increasing. Therefore, the development and performance of China’s regional rural commercial banks have been significantly affected. Thus, it is of great significance to research the influencing factors of China’s regional rural commercial banks business performance and find solutions to change the operation mechanism, enhance the competitiveness and improve business performance. Based on unbalanced panel data of 85 regional rural commercial banks from 2013 to 2018, this paper firstly evaluates regional rural commercial banks’ business performance from the perspectives of profitability, safety and liquidity using principal component analysis method, and then uses panel regression model to analyze the influencing factors of the regional rural commercial banks business performance from the dimensions of internal factors, regional factors and macro factors. The results indicate that the operation performance of rural commercial banks has declined in recent years, and the main influencing internal factors including the structure and cost of debts, the structure, utilization efficiency and revenue of assets, regional financial competition factor and macro factors significantly affect regional rural commercial banks’ performance. In addition, the results also indicate that rural commercial banks in less economically developed regions are more susceptible to regional and macro factors, compared with rural commercial banks in economically developed regions. Based on the above research results. This paper proposes that regional rural commercial banks should promote business performance through improving their cost control and risk management, taking advantage of the ongoing regional economic development and industrial restructuring, and adapting to financial policies and fintech development.

Key words: regional rural commercial banks, business performance, influencing factors