With the deepening of “Reform and Opening to the outside world” and the carrying out of “Great West Development”, finance will surely play a more and more important role in the whole national economy. To sum up lessons from the history of modern financial institutions in northwest China will no doubt offer enlightenment to both the undergoing financial system reform and the advancement of “Great West Development” strategy.

The book not only reviews the characters of the old type of financial institutions but also discusses the emerging and evaluation of the modern financial institutions in northwest China.The paper emphasizes particularly on the coming into being of northwest China’s modern financial system which consists of “the main body”（it refers to the provincial bank and the county bank） and “two wings”（they mean the state-owned bank and the commercial bank） together with the positive effects it has produced on the economic development of northwest China during the resistance war against Japan. Meanwhile, it addresses the fundamental functions of the new democratic financial institutes in the Shan-Gan-Ning Border Region. At last, it points out various kinds of characters of the modern financial institutions in northwest China in contrast to those of in southeast China’s treaty ports.

Key words：Modern Times Northwest China Finance