Foreign banks to reap reform dividend

China is "very active and serious" about further opening up its financial sector, and this will bring huge business opportunities to foreign banks in the country, said Pei Yigen, executive vice-president of Citibank (China) Co Ltd.

"Compared with the policies allowing foreign banks to set up branches in China, in addition to wholly owned subsidiaries and joint-venture banks, or remove caps on foreign ownership in Chinese financial institutions, we pay higher attention to the policies that expand the business scope of foreign banks," he said.

Citi China received a license from the China Financial Futures Exchange in June to act as a futures margin depository bank for its client in the China futures market.