Mainland China has about 415,000 people with $1m or more in assets in addition to their main residence, according to the latest annual World Wealth Report from Merrill Lynch and the consultants Capgemini. That compares with 123,000 in India, 495,000 in the UK and 3m in the US.
That potential market has lured foreign banks such as Citigroup and Standard Chartered into launching wealth management services in China, while local institutions, such as Industrial & Commercial Bank of China have also started aiming at the country's surging numbers of rich people.
In April, HSBC launched private banking services on the mainland, saying it would target customers with net assets of $10m or more with $3m available for investment, who could deposit a minimum of $1m.