Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's largest lender, plans to create 500 centres to cater for the country's richest clients by the end of 2007 in a move that will ramp up competition in the market.

Foreign banks interested in going after retail customers in China have largely been drawn to a small but rapidly growing pool of wealthy Chinese, prompting several of the banks to set up wealth management operations in key cities.

Domestic banks have also stepped up efforts to attract rich Chinese, knowing competition would intensify after Dec. 11 when foreigners could apply to conduct business with ordinary Chinese in yuan terms for the first time.

ICBC, which staged the world's largest initial public offering in October, would initially open 80 wealth management centers in the country's wealthiest cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The centers would target individuals whose assets surpassed 200,000 yuan ($25,600), it said. ICBC would also boost its wealth management offerings and strengthen its account manager teams.

"After the full opening of China's banking sector, the competition between Chinese and foreign banks will start from the battle in the personal financial services area," said Yang Kaisheng, president of the bank. In a statement, ICBC said it had 2.3 million clients being serviced by its wealth management operations. Their combined assets stood above 700 billion yuan ($89.5 billion), it said.

Retail banking now accounted for almost 40 percent of the lender's profits, it said. The bank's fee-based revenues had hit 6.62 billion yuan between January and November, up 2.6 billion yuan from the same period a year ago, it added.

Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and ABN AMRO are among the foreign banks aggressively targeting the wealth management market in China.