BEIJING -- China will work to introduce financial institutions to another 500 villages and towns that currently have no financial services establishments in them, the country's banking regulator said Thursday.

The move aims to promote equal access to financial services in rural areas, Zhou Mubing, vice chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), said in a national teleconference.

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Zhou urged central and eastern provinces and regions to establish financial institutes in all their villages and towns in 2011 and western areas to accelerate the pace.

Regulatory authorities should give incentives to encourage social capital in various fields to enter the rural financial market, Zhou said.

Those first building financial institutions in rural areas where financial services are not available will get priorities in the fields including preferential access to the local financial market and lower requirements in operating capital and supervisory standards, he added.

Starting October 2009, the CBRC has been working to promote financial services in rural areas. So far, the number of villages and towns without financial services establishments have been reduced by 646 to 2,299, he said.