China to trial 3-5 private banks in 2014

China is set to allow three to five privately funded banks to operate this year as a part of trial financial reforms, Bloomberg reported, citing a statement by the China Banking Regulatory Commission on Monday. China will direct private investment to help restructure existing banks and explore lowering the threshold for foreign banks to enter China. Foreign banks only have less than 2% of the market share in China, where banking assets more than doubled since 2008 to US$24 trillion (RMB147 trillion).