Seventeen rural bank branches opened in Yunnan province over the weekend, as Chinese lenders accelerate their expansion into rural areas.

Among the 17 new branches, 10 were launched by Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, which is partly owned by Australian lender Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank also added new branches in the province.

The move comes amid a central government push to support the country's rural markets, where financial services are largely at a preliminary stage, in hopes that easier financial access would help to raise productivity.

At the end of March, a total of 740 rural bank branches had been launched in China.