Article at a glance:

China's banks get personal

China's recent accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will open up that country's enormous and largely untapped financial-services market to foreign players. The WTO-mandated regulatory reforms, however, may have a less immediate impact than will changing preferences among Chinese consumers, who are becoming enthusiastic borrowers and investors.

The take-away

Which companies will succeed in China's booming financial-services market? The playing field may not be as level as many expected. Foreign banks, for instance, won't be able to collect deposits until 2007, which limits their ability to finance products such as mortgages and home loans. Chinese banks, which now make little effort to target particular customer segments, will have to become far more savvy or risk losing their local dominance.