Last year, the bank released more than 100 new products for its consumer and wholesale banking customers. On February 13, Standard Chartered released its first renminbi financial product of 2007, focusing on manufacturing resource industries such as iron and steel, coal, and bronze.

However, not everyone can enjoy the supposedly superior quality service offered by foreign banks. Standard Chartered is seeking large returns by catering to wealthy clients, not the average family man.

In order to target those clients, Standard Chartered has unveiled plans to introduce a package of renminbi products tailored to the local customers' needs through two retail banking brands: Priority Banking (current account over $100,000) and Excel Banking (current account over $10,000). The bank said it welcomed all customers, but the high access bar deters small businesses from the services. Any account below the threshold of these packages will be charged a management fee of 30 yuan to 50 yuan a month.

There is evidence that any type of service charge will not go down well with the average customer in China, perhaps an indication that the throngs will stay away from these foreign-owned banks. An announcement last year that the "big four" state-owned commercial banks would charge a yearly service fee of a measly 10 yuan met with stiff resistance across China.

While standard fare across the globe, Chinese banking customers are not used to service charges.

"We do have to take a certain amount of management fee if the customer's deposit is below a required sum," said Wang Ping. "It is an international practice."

Yan Qiang, Assistant President of China UnionPay (an association for China's banking card industry), said on March 26 that the four foreign banks currently entering the market-HSBC (China) Co. Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank (China) Ltd., Bank of East Asia (China) Ltd., and Citibank (China) Co. Ltd.-are negotiating with UnionPay in an effort to issue bank cards.

Out of the starting gate

The scale of their networks is probably the most vulnerable aspect of foreign banks, Standard Chartered included.

As Gao Jing, public relations manager at Wal-Mart in Beijing has repeatedly accentuated, "In China, it's all about the network!" Standard Chartered is taking note and working to expand its scale. Shanghai-based Tsang announced that the bank expects to increase the total number of outlets to 40 from the current 22, subject to regulatory approval.

To tackle the rapidly increasing demand for self-service facilities, last year the bank installed 22 ATMs in major cities and plans to launch private banking services in 2007. Wang Ping explained that the bank's wholesale and consumer banking businesses cover three main markets within China: the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai-rim region. The three areas mentioned above are the most robust economic regions in China.

Merger and acquisition is believed to be an effective way to expand business in a new area. Standard Chartered is interested in buying 19.9 percent of Bohai Bank, the first joint-stock bank in north China's Tianjin Municipality. According to stipulations by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, foreign banks can own no more than 20 percent of a Chinese bank, but this purchase would be a way for Standard Chartered to access the fast lane of the hyper Chinese economy.

In terms of human resources, Standard Chartered said recruiting will accelerate to parallel rapidly developing business in China. In 2006, nearly 1,000 staff were recruited and the bank currently has about 2,200 employees in China. Tsang said it is normal to hire employees away from other banks and that Standard Chartered has never had a dearth of middle management staff. Recently, China Economic Weekly reported that the British lender will add 1,600 new staff this year.

Brief introduction of Standard Chartered operation in China Standard Chartered currently operates 12 branches, eight sub-branches and three representative offices in the Chinese mainland. There are altogether seven branches that can provide full banking services including renminbi to corporate clients, namely Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Nanjing, Xiamen, Zhuhai and Tianjin.