The ability of foreign banks to tap into China's market remains stunted

Gist of WSJ article:  foreign bank profits took sharp fall last year while Chinese banks posted double-digit percentage gains.

The problem:

Foreign banks have long struggled to build a business of any scale, since they are reined in by Chinese regulatory limits on how much local banking operations can lean on foreign parents.

The local logic?  Insulating the economy from foreign financial shocks.  But this means foreign banks can't open much in the way of new branches--thus offering local banks better competition, which presumably would aid the Chinese consumer.

All of this from KPMG report which ferrets this stuff out, because foreign banks do not disclose much about their ops in China, and rarely speak critically of the government.