China's big banks each "have almost more branches than we have employees", says one Western bank boss. He is only half joking. The big two have over 15,000 branches each. Only a few hundred are owned by foreign firms, which on the mainland have a feeble market share of 2% of total assets. And although many Western banks have been allowed to take passive minority stakes in Chinese financial firms, being given permission to build up a biggish branch network is a privilege granted to the very few.
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