Service growth opens doors for nation's banks

Chinese banks will have more opportunities to expand overseas as the country transitions toward a more service-based economy, said Michael Andrew, global chairman of KPMG International, an accounting and consulting services provider.

The service sector, especially banking, is seen as one of the next growth engines that will spur the rapid expansion of the world's second largest economy, Andrew said in Tianjin at the World Economic Forum's sixth Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2012.

Large Chinese banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, are increasing their holdings in overseas financial institutions as well as expanding branches, while EU banks are shrinking their balance sheets amid the debt crisis, he said.