By Jin Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-30 10:23

"Mutual funds favor the four State-controlled banks because they usually have a wider network compared with small and medium-sized banks," said Qiu Zhicheng, an analyst at Haitong Securities. "But as the demand is far greater than the supply from large banks, some mutual funds began to resort to medium-sized banks."

According to statistics from TX Investment Consulting Co Ltd, the total market value of mutual funds under custody of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was the largest - around 729.43 billion yuan - rising 179 percent from the beginning of this year. It was followed by China Construction Bank, Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of Communications.

In the joint-venture bank rankings, China Merchants Bank tops all others, with 38 billion yuan in mutual funds under custody, up 81.2 percent from the beginning of this year. It was followed by Industrial Bank and China CITIC Bank.

The intermediate services have been widely recognized by mainland banks as an engine for higher profit though there is still a large gap between their counterparts in developed countries, analysts said.

The average income of intermediate services in commercial banks is around 10 percent of the total income while it is around 20 to 40 percent in countries like the US.

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