The consumer credit market in China has the potential to grow more than fourfold to 2.35 trillion US dollars from the current 500 billion US dollars, a survey released on Thursday shows.

This huge potential, however, would not easily become a reality, since most Chinese banks need to improve their marketing and analysis, said the survey on consumer credit practices in the Asia Pacific region.

The survey was conducted by the Asian Banker, a Singapore-based financial services research and intelligence firm.

Almost 65 percent of Chinese banks surveyed said they were unable to target appropriate customers for their consumer credit offerings.

The survey said banks in emerging economies like China and India often use broader-based approaches to customer acquisition, while those in Singapore and Australia have adopted more advanced marketing strategies in customer segmentation.

Meanwhile, 58 percent of Chinese banks considered making effective use of credit bureaus and historical data as major challenges.

The survey also said the consumer credit market in the Asia-Pacific region has the potential to more than double to 8 trillion US dollars from the current 3.9 trillion US dollars.

(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2007)