US banking group Citi has proposed to set up a regional joint-stock bank - Yangtze River Bank - in Wuhan, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

The US bank intends to hold a 20 percent stake in the proposed new bank. Like many other provinces, Hubei is trying to integrate and restructure the banking sector. Local experts, however, believe that it is more practical to develop Wuhan City Commercial Bank into a regional bank rather than to establish a new one.