Distribution Orientation and Driving Mechanism of Geographical Pattern Change of China′s Banking Industry

Key words: 
• banking industry /
• geographic pattern change /
• distribution orientation /
• driving mechanism /
• China

Abstract: By analyzing the relationship among government, market driving forces, distribution orientation of banking industry, service
opportunity equality and spatial patterns, this paper proposes that it is distribution orientation that lead to the formation and evolution of
spatial pattern of banking industry. The difference of the distribution orientation leads to the separation of the spatial pattern of banking
industry, and the change of the distribution orientation leads to the change of spatial pattern. The degree of spatial pattern change is
subject to the degree of change of distribution orientation, and the scale of bank resources in the regions, which supports the
distribution orientation variation. Based on these theoretical frameworks, some indicators were designed to analyze the pattern change of
China′s banking industry and its effects since 1995 under the change of the distribution orientation. This paper finds that the orientation
of economic benefit maximization driven by market causes the banking industry to concentrate in economically developed regions. The
government, which does not follow the orientation of economic benefit maximization, plays a role of stabilizer. Since the bank branches in
the regions with the greatest change in bank branch distribution are too few, and regions with the greatest change in bank loan
allocation are the regions with lots of loans, the pattern change of the banking industry in physical form is not as notable as that in
economic form.