A report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) says China represents the second largest market in Asia excluding Japan, with about US$1.44 trillion in assets being managed for wealthy individuals defined as those whose annual income is above US$100,000.
BCG s survey of retail banks reveals that the average private banking customer car. be 10 times more profitable than an average mass market retail customer，a atatistic banks are paying increasing attention to the wealthy.
(56)Facing the emerging wealth management market，Chinese banks have made impressive headway in the creation of new wealth management products and services. There are now more than 20 kinds of wealth management products on offer at the State-owned big four banks and national joint-stock banks. The China Eerbright Bank’s November 2005 financial report shows a 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) wealth management revenue,up 50 percent over last year.
Chinese banks, especially the State-owned big four, have inherent advantages in wealth management.(57)They have a large customer base and an extensive service network that offers customers accessibility and convenience.Managers at the big banks also tend to have a good relationship with local customers.
However，analysts believe that，althoughthe level of personal assets held in financial institutions in China is significant, wealth management products and services offered by Chinese banks are still relatively unsophisticated.
Deng Junhao,vice president and director of BCG points outthat China’s typical wealth management offering as more “hardware” than “software”.
(58)Key issues that continue to stymie domestic banks’ progress include a lack of properlv-trained managers,limited differentiation of customers,limited products and similar brands.
Despite having 20 kinds of products to choose between, there is actually little separating them. Brands do not have a sufficiently unique or differentiated product to target specific types of customers.
Competitive threat
There is only one year left until the Chinese banking market is fully liberalized and foreign institutions are able to serve individual customers in renminbi-based business.
(59)Foreign banks have already experimented and learned about the market despite regulatory limitations over the type of businesses they can operate. Standard Chartered Bank has offered an “SC Priority Banking” card for customers with quarterly average account balances of US$100,000 or the equivalent, while Citibank has launched its “Citigold” product for customers with monthly average account balances of US$100.300 or the equivalent.Both banks have set up dedicated wealth management centres in key cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Foreign banks have many competitive advantages over local banks including brand names with internationally recognized prestige and trust, experience and expertise in a broader range of investment products and advisory models， established operational models, particularly processes,systems andpolicies, and capabilities to attract, train and retain the best talent.
(60)Foreign banks will create tough competition in the wealth management market, as they enter the retail market and attempt to pick the most attractive customers. Unless Chinese banks can respond, there is a real and significant threat that many wealthy customers will be lured away by the highly-evolved products and services foreign banks canoffer.(China Daily 12/19/2005 page 4)
What can we infer from this passage?
A、Chinese banks are the best choices for Chinese wealthy customers.
B、Foreign banks are the best choices for Chinese wealthy customers.
C、The competition for Chinese wealthy customers will be fierce.
D、Managing money is a very troublesome issue for Chinese wealthy customers.
【正确答案】：C
【名师解析】:根据文章内容，我们可以推断出中国富裕客户之间的竞争将会非常激烈。文章首先指出中国是亚洲除日本外第二大市场，拥有大约1.44万亿美元的资产被管理，这些资产属于年收入超过10万美元的富裕个人。接着提到，零售银行的调查显示，私人银行客户的平均利润是普通大众市场零售客户的10倍，这使得银行越来越关注富裕客户。
文章还提到中国银行，尤其是国有四大银行，在财富管理方面具有固有优势，如拥有庞大的客户基础和广泛的服务网络，为客户提供便利和方便。然而，尽管中国金融机构持有的个人资产水平显著，但中国银行提供的财富管理产品和服务仍然相对不成熟。BCG的副总裁邓俊豪指出，中国典型的财富管理产品更多的是“硬件”而非“软件”。
此外，国内银行在发展中面临一些关键问题，包括缺乏经过适当培训的管理人员、客户差异化有限、产品种类有限以及品牌相似。尽管有20种产品可供选择，但实际上它们之间的区别很小，品牌没有足够独特或差异化的产品来针对特定类型的客户。
文章最后提到，中国银行业市场即将全面开放，外国机构将能够以人民币业务服务个人客户。外国银行已经在中国市场上进行了实验，并了解了市场，尽管监管限制了它们可以经营的业务类型。外国银行在品牌、投资产品和咨询模式的经验、运营模式以及吸引、培训和留住最佳人才的能力方面拥有许多竞争优势。
因此，从文章中我们可以推断出，随着外国银行进入零售市场并试图吸引最具吸引力的客户，它们将在财富管理市场上创造激烈的竞争，除非中国银行能够做出回应，否则许多富裕客户可能会被外国银行提供的高级产品和服务吸引走。这表明选项C是正确的，即中国富裕客户之间的竞争将会非常激烈。