From Financial Times:
Intense competition in China could prevent foreign banks from profiting from their investments in credit card and mortgage ventures for another 10 years, according to a KPMG report.
More than 70 overseas banks now operate in China, having invested billions of dollars in the sector over the past five years. Several have raised expectations that local joint ventures would deliver early returns.
However, the report, partly based on a survey of foreign and local banking executives, suggests that executives are becoming increasingly bearish about the prospects of making profits from their operating ventures in the short-to-medium term, though many have earned handsome paper profits from equity stakes in state-owned banks that have listed in Hong Kong or Shanghai. [Full Text]
