China Merchants Bank and China CITIC Bank have opened private banking centres in Shenzhen and Beijing respectively. They are the second banks to offer such services in China after the Bank of China. China Merchants Bank said it would target high-end clients with personal financial assets of over CNY10 million ($1.3 million). An official of the bank said that the profits of domestic private banking business were ten times higher than ordinary retail business. China Merchant's first centre is in Shenzhen, in south China's Guangdong Province, where the bank is headquartered. The bank says it intends to roll out private banking services to China's other large cities later. Meanwhile, China CITIC Bank, China’s seventh-largest lender in terms of total assets, launched a private banking centre in Beijing, targeting high-end customers with assets of $1 million, according to local media reports. The centre will provide diversified investment products according to customer demand. It is claimed to be the first private banking centre in Beijing, and China CITIC will also launch services in other big cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.