The Economist
Yet success will depend on foreigners’ ability to establish and market themselves. Goldman and BlackRock have some name recognition in China by virtue of their size. Amundi and Schroders, by contrast, are unknown outside financial circles. And teaming up with home-grown banks has some downsides. A potential customer at a bank branch will be offered a suite of products, which will include those designed and branded by the joint ventures, but also those designed solely by the bank. Online, joint-venture offerings will probably appear on smartphone apps on a list of commoditised products. The foreign groups will therefore have to make sure their offering is advertised sufficiently to clients—no easy task given that tens of thousands of banks’ relationship managers will be responsible for sales. It can be done, but only with hefty investment in staff training, says Philip Leung of Bain, a consultancy.