(Yicai) Jan. 19 -- Irate depositors stormed a branch of the Bijie Rural Consumer Co-operative in southwestern Guizhou province after the Chinese non-official mutual aid organization said it doesn’t have funds available for withdrawal.

Bijie Rural Co-operative, which has one main service center and four branches, confirmed to Yicai that one of its outlets has been ransacked and police are investigating the matter, after a video clip circulating online showed chairs, potted plants as well as other items lying smashed in the co-op's lobby.

Bijie Rural Co-op, whose function has evolved over the years from helping members buy daily necessities and work tools to lending, told its customers in October last year that it was under liquidity pressure.

The cash flow crisis probably has to do with the local government’s request for the co-operative to change its business and return existing deposits, an employee told Yicai.

The local government is now asking the courts and police to help the cooperative retrieve lent funds more quickly, so it can return deposits before the Spring Festival, which falls from Feb. 10 to Feb. 17, but most of it is expected to come after the holiday, the employee said.

Rural consumer cooperatives do not hold a banking license and their interest rates are usually higher than those of banks. Bijie Rural Co-op offered various deposit accounts with terms ranging from three months to five years, according to an announcement on its WeChat account in 2018. The yield on a five-year deposit was around 8 percent at the time.

Bijie Rural Co-op, which was founded in 2015, has a registered capital of CNY40 million (USD5.6 million). It has eight shareholders, namely seven individuals and Guizhou Bijie Agricultural Products, which is under the local government-owned Bijie Municipal Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor