台灣農村金融組織的基層單位為「農會」，其不僅提供農民經營農業的資金需求，同時也是協助推動台灣農業政策及改善農村、農氏生活最重要的執行單位，在農業建設方面亦扮演重要角色，其機構分佈全國農村，對農村經濟之發展，有極大的貢獻。惟八十年代以來金融自由化、國際化之措施，使得金融業問之競爭也隨之升高，此外，台灣於2002年加入WTO'農業面臨極大的衝擊，農村金融機構之經營更加惡化，導致多家農村金融機構產生虧損，使其生存面臨極大的威脅，因而進入改革調整階段。因此，本文乃針對台灣農村金融之概況、農村金融之功能、九0年代末農村金融面臨之危機及當前農村金融改革之方向進行探討，希冀對農村金融之發展有所助益。

The fundamental units of rural financial organizations in Taiwan are ‘Farmers'Associations'. Not only does it meet the needs of financial need of agricultural business operations， but also assisting agricultural policies and villages improvements. Itis the most important organization to implement policies， and it plays an important role in agriculture construction. The ‘Farmers'Associations' spread all over rural area which contribute to rural financial development greatly. However since the 1980s finance liberalization and internationalization policies， the competition in financial industry escalates accordingly. Additionally the joining of WTO of Taiwan in 2002 has great impact on agriculture. The rural financial institutions worsen which lead to deficit. The existences of rural financial institutions were under great risks， and enter their reformation and adjustment stage. Therefore， this paper focuses on investigating the general situation of rural finance， functions of rural finance， rural finance crisis at the end of 1990s and the current direction of financial reformation. We believe that this study can benefit the development of rural financial development.