China Merchants Bank is considering offering private banking services to tap into the country's growing number of super affluent potential customers.

"China Merchants Bank certainly wants to offer private banking services,'' said Yuan Danxu, deputy general manager of the bank's retail banking, today in Shanghai.

He declined to give any more details before an "official announcement'' is made.

China Merchants Bank, the country's sixth biggest lender, has already set up a "diamond workshop'' in its headquarters to serve high net worth people with assets more than five million yuan (US$650,195).

The Shenzhen-based lender is the latest among Chinese lenders to show a readiness to step into the nascent but lucrative very well-off sector in China.

The Bank of China in March launched its private banking services in Shanghai as the first domestic bank to follow the trend set by overseas rivals like Citibank and BNP Paribas.

China Citic Bank has also showed interest to dash into the market.

The private banking threshold normally sits at US$1 million in the global industry. There is a saying in the banking sector that 20 percent of high-end clients account for 80 percent of lenders' revenue, indicating why big players are fighting for rich clients.

The Chinese mainland in 2005 had 320,000 millionaires who had a net worth of at least US$1 million, according to a report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch. Chinese millionaires' total assets topped US$1.59 trillion in 2005, the second biggest in Asia Pacific following Japan, the report said.

The number of Chinese affluent is growing with a higher demand for financial planning. Stocks and funds have grown as key investment products for high-income earners in China in the country's booming equity market, an industry report said.