THE Bank of Communications (stock code: 601328) plans to double its outlets for high-end wealth management services to 200 in China within 12 months, a senior bank executive told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

The country's fifth-biggest bank expects its OTO (one-to-one) sites to account for 15 percent of its total network nationwide in one to two years, BoCom Executive Vice President Dicky Yip said on the sidelines of a business school symposium yesterday in Shanghai.

BoCom now has about 2,800 outlets in nearly 150 cities across China. It plans to open at least one or two high-end wealth management service outlets in every major city, Yip said.

The bank is targeting clients who maintain average daily financial assets exceeding 500,000 yuan (US$65,530) over a calendar quarter.

The OTO wealth management services were launched a year ago.

Yip noted that the bank is also considering entering the nascent private banking sectors as a strategic investment.

The OTO services would help create a client pool for a future private banking bid.

BoCom, 18.6 percent owned by HSBC Holdings, is picking up more market share in consumer lending as a result of HSBC's expertise in developing fee-based services, including credit cards and wealth management.

Big domestic banks are beefing up efforts to build their wealth management services to battle overseas rivals after China fully opened its banking bank in December.

Banks are vying to gain access to affluent clients under the 2-8 rule, which contends that the 20 percent of high-end clients contribute 80 percent of a bank's profit.

Jiang Jianqing, chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said earlier this week that the country's biggest lender plans to open 1,000 VIP wealth management outlets this year and a further 2,000 over the coming two years.

ICBC will invest nine billion yuan this year to improve facilities and computer systems at its thousands of total outlets nationwide.