(Yicai) May 28 -- Industrial Bank has halted a new program offering elite internship services to the children of clients who deposit at least CNY10 million (USD1.4 million).

The description of the new promotion was incomplete, so the lender decided to suspend this program, Industrial Bank told Yicai yesterday.

Industrial Bank offered children of clients depositing at least CNY10 million with lock-in terms the possibility to apply for elite internship positions in the finance, internet, news, fast-moving consumer goods, media, and automotive industries at large companies, such as Google, Microsoft, China International Capital Corporation, ByteDance, and Xinhua News Agency, according to the promotional material.

Launched in cooperation with third-party institutions, this value-added program is for high-net-worth clients, Industrial Bank noted, adding that applicants still need to be approved by employers through interviews before the internship offers are sent.

Lenders’ private banking divisions often offer educational support, internship, and lifestyle services to wealthy customers’ children, mainly because of intensifying deposit pressure and competition, industry insiders told Yicai.

This is a normal commercial practice complying with laws and regulations, as banks leverage institutional connections to arrange internships for clients’ children, Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance and deputy director of the Shanghai Institution for Finance and Development, told Yicai.

Private banking is one of lenders’ highest-value businesses and has emerged as a key growth point for their deposit business after pressure on their retail operations.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s private banking assets under management were the highest among Chinese banks at the end of last year, growing over 13 percent to CNY3.47 trillion (USD482 billion) from a year earlier.

ICBC was followed by Agricultural Bank of China with CNY3.15 trillion in private banking AUM, up 19 percent in the period. The AUM of the private banking businesses of Bank of China and China Construction Bank surged 17 percent and 10 percent to CNY3.14 trillion and CNY2.78 trillion, respectively.

Editor: Futura Costaglione